Books on the French Defense

Hi,

I am looking to buy some books on the French Defense. Can anyone recommend some good ones? Or even some good websites, PDF's or materials please?

Thanks!

I would start with reviewing Uhlmann's games in the French - one of the world's leading authorities on it.

www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?page=6&pid=11804&playercomp=black&eco=C00-C19&title=Wolfgang%20Uhlmann%20playing%20the%20French%20Defense%20as%20Black

On chessable there is "Master the French Defense" course. Has a free version too. I own it, it's alright, shows the ideas without going too deep into theory.

The Even More Flexible French by Moskalenko.

@RickOShay
Chessable is a great website for training.
www.chessable.com/courses/s/french
Try the free one by NM Bryan Tillis, and see whether you like it, and then buy the complete one.
(I have gone through both, and I like it. A lot of material though !)

Neil McDonald has a good book to start with: thinks it's named something like "How To Play Against 1.e4", explaining how to play the 3.Nc3 Nf6 Classical variation and 3...dxe4 - those are the best to start with. The Winawer (3.Nc3 Bb4) is alluring but hard to play as Black, especially these days...

Check the reviews here:
www.amazon.com/How-Play-Against-1-e4/dp/1857445864

Nah, forget opening books for now. GM level theory has very little use for us mortals, because nobody plays the lines anyway. If you really want to learn the lines that your opponents play against you, make a study yourself. Check out tools that lichess offers: opening database and SF. Go through your games slowly, look in the database what other people play in your rating range in different time controls, check if the engine agrees... Maybe there is a move that SF says is +0.2 for white, but somehow black scores 70% wins in your rating range? Explore a bit, find the trap, try to memorize. This is knowledge you can use, and not some Winawer lines that *never* happen on your chessboard. Then, as you progress and realize your opponents play some lines that actually have names and you get crushed a lot because they know 20 moves of theory, only then you go buy some books.

@stumilowylas - at first I didn't like your answer... but now I realize, there is probably some truth to this, at least until a player is at a master level. I certainly would not throw out at least learning the basic opening moves and their names, but an in depth study of an opening probably does not help use in the 1200 - 1800 range.

Thanks,

#2
Yes, Uhlmann, but also Korchnoi and Botvinnik

www.chessable.com/dodgys-tactics-french-caro-kann-scandinavian-and-pirc-1000-puzzles/course/12554/ here is also one that I enjoyed but this one is paid, though you can still catch the cyber Monday thing on it and they have plenty free ones that are useful :)