Never be afraid of 1. e4 again!!

The French Defense is an opening that everybody misjudges, They think that the French bishop is permanently sleeping for the game, making the French stupid. If you think this, I do not blame you. I was once a player that thought the same thing, then I got taught the French, and ever since I have never been better at chess.

The idea of the French is to pretty much play d5. Most players with White play d4, but there are other sidelines that I will cover in another post. After White goes d4, Black usually goes d5, striking the center. In this blog, we will cover the Advance variation.

The Advanced variation is exactly what it sounds like: White goes e5, taking the f6 square away for Black to put their knight on. And as Black, an important thing you don't wanna do is play f6 yourself, because that SIGNIFICANTLY weakens your king and is exposed to all sorts of attacks,

Black goes 4. ...c5!, attacking the center of White's pawn chain, d4. White usually plays 5. c3, keeping their pawn chain for now, but if they play any other move, you can take on d4 and get a good position because of White's overextended e-pawn.

If you are a typical French player, you would know that after White goes 5. c3, you play 5. ...Nc6, attacking the d4 pawn again. You are not threatening to immediately take, but you will put even more pressure on the pawn, as you will see in the future. White typically goes 6. Nf3, adding another defender to the d4 pawn. Show White no mercy and play 6. ...Qb6!

White cannot add any more defenders to the d4 pawn, so the player with the White pieces usually go 7. a3, trying to play b4, so that the c1 bishop is not tied down to the b4 pawn. Now there are TWO good moves you can play after 7. a3, which are c4 and Nh6.

The point of c4 is to cover the b3 square, in which both sides fight for the b3 square with moves like Nbd2 and Rb1. Black fights for the b3 square with moves like Na5 and Bd7.

The second move (my personal favorite, although I play c4 at times too) is Nh6. What is the point of this move? It looks dumb, putting the knight on the edge of the board. But, it is threatening to put EVEN MORE pressure on the d4 pawn, with Nf5. The best move for White is to play Bd3, to take the knight after it goes to f5 and to castle the king. Black might be hesitant to play this line because of the worse bishop and the doubled pawns on the f-file, but Black has attacking chances with h6, then g5!

So, in general, the French Defense is a fun, aggressive opening with lots of chances for both White and Black. Have fun!

Thanks to @ChessNutDerek for teaching me the French Defense.

- ChessNutAryan