I need a better line to play against the french defense

@OSpengler At least in the French exchange, however boring it is, you know you are equal. In the Scandinavian, you are just worse.

@MrBongcloud You could also play the h4 winawer, like MVL did against Nepo. It is sharp, but there is not that much theory and it will come down to who is the better player.

@Ragnar25 Yeah Scandinavian defense is theoretically worse for Black, but White has to play very accurately to utilise that small advantage. I think if Black does some theoretical preparation, most White players below CM strength would not be able to abuse the small advantage in the opening. In Scandinavian defense you should play 2...Nf6 instead of capturing the pawn immediately, then the Qd6 line is specifically better than the Qa5 line.

1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Nf6 3. d4 Qxd5 4. Nc3 Qd6
5. Nb5 Qb6 This line is perfectly ok for Black, the Nb5 knight is actually not so good for White.

@OSpengler But if Nf6, white can utilize the move c4.
Example: 1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Nf6 3. d4 Qxd5 4. c4 Qe4+
5. Ne2 e5 6. Nc3 Bb4 7. Bd2 Bxc3 8. Bxc3
Or: 1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Nf6 3. d4 Nxd5 4. c4 Nb6

Botvinnik quit playing the French and changed to the Caro-Kann. That is in his matches with Smyslov and because of Nc3 and a4 as mentioned above.
Larsen argued the Scandinavian is a better version of the Caro-Kann. Larsen beat Karpov with the Scandinavian.
So Scandinavian > Caro-Kann > French

There is no white advantage in the Scandinavian. 1 e4 d5 2 exd5 Qxd5 is better than 2...Nf6, which loses a pawn by force if white wants to. Carlsen regularly plays 2...Qxd5

I like to play French Defense: La Bourdonnais Variation
Two example games:



And



I have played many many many games in this opening variation, you can search in lichess database. Actually I haven't played much with this account so, you may not find games with this account's name, but I am sure there are many games in LICHESS database (Not the masters one)

I played a game today in this variation (Rapid Chess)

@tpr In both the Scandinavian you give up the center and white retains a small advantage he can use in the endgame. In the French, you challenge the center with pawn breaks, and in many variations of the winawer, you can get two pawns in to the center to none, and will have an advantage in the endgame because of whites doubled pawns