What is the plan in French Exchange as black? • page 1/2 • General Chess Discussion • lichess.org

I play Bird's Opening or London System or Jobava London as white and they have clear plans. Against d4 i play Gudapest Gambit or Nimzo-Indian and against e4 i play French. I tried so many openings(Caro-Kann, Scandinavian, Pirc...) against e4 but i cant play against it. The thing is i'm comfortable at advance, because again i know my plan but EXCHANGE is too hard, i can't understand what to do. Pls help me or nerf the French Exchange PLEASE!

#2

tpr

#3

#1
The position is entirely symmetrical and you can play to maintain symmetry. The bishops usually go to d3 for white and to d6 for black. Nimzovich recommended in "My System" to break symmetry: if white plays Nf3 then ...Nge7 and if white plays Nge2, then ...Nf6.
The idea of ...Nge7 instead of the natural ...Nf6 is to trade your bad bishop Bc8 on the color of your pawns d5-c6-b7 for his good bishop Bd3 not on the color of his pawns d4-c3-b2 with ...Bf5.
The idea of ...Nf6 together with ...Bd6 is ...O-O and ...Re8 to seize the e-file.
Another idea is c4 for white or ...c5 for black, accepting an isolated queen's pawn, which is an endgame weakness, but gives active piece play in the middle game, like Tarrasch recommended.
The best way to understand the positions is to play through some grandmaster games.

#1 The position is entirely symmetrical and you can play to maintain symmetry. The bishops usually go to d3 for white and to d6 for black. Nimzovich recommended in "My System" to break symmetry: if white plays Nf3 then ...Nge7 and if white plays Nge2, then ...Nf6. The idea of ...Nge7 instead of the natural ...Nf6 is to trade your bad bishop Bc8 on the color of your pawns d5-c6-b7 for his good bishop Bd3 not on the color of his pawns d4-c3-b2 with ...Bf5. The idea of ...Nf6 together with ...Bd6 is ...O-O and ...Re8 to seize the e-file. Another idea is c4 for white or ...c5 for black, accepting an isolated queen's pawn, which is an endgame weakness, but gives active piece play in the middle game, like Tarrasch recommended. The best way to understand the positions is to play through some grandmaster games.

swimmerBill

#4

What Triangle said! I'll add that it depends on what you are aiming for? If you want to win and dont want to aim for Tarrasch reversed, you want to unbalance the symmetrical position in other ways. As an example: if white plays Nf3&c3 you can play Nc6 and e7. With this your idea plan in Bd6, h3 Kh8, exchange light sq bishop Rg8 Rf8 then expand : g5, Ng6 , f5 etc. If white tries this setup you can play Nf6 then try to have an outpost on e4, supported by f5 and double rooks on e-file. I think the general idea in symmetrical positions is to aim for more active minor pieces, restrict the opponents minor pieces with limited pawn moves or exchanges, take time to set up carefully then expand on one side or the other.

b-file

#5

In the exchange French you can try playing Nc6, Bg4, move the queen out, castle queenside and attack the white king, It looks a little awkward because you've developed the knight in front of the c-pawn and the white pawn storm with a4 and b4 can look scary, But it's perfectly playable and one of the only ways to get exciting and attacking play in the exchange French. Of course this is very risky and if you want slower more positional play I'd stick to the main lines, But those tend to be very drawish

MrsLina

#6

@b-file I tried the castle queenside and it is a little bit harder to get out from danger in the beginning of the game i think, but later it is perfect for me. Thank you, muah!

Sardoix

#7

one idea is to mix the set up Bd6-Nge7 and Nc6 then go long castle. you can avoid some nasty Bb5 line against an early Nc6 that way.
playing solid following white moves is also an option. though you have to avoid being too passive and don't let white sit on e5 with a knight for too long.
there's also the early c5 or Bg4 but i don't have much experience with those myself

one idea is to mix the set up Bd6-Nge7 and Nc6 then go long castle. you can avoid some nasty Bb5 line against an early Nc6 that way. playing solid following white moves is also an option. though you have to avoid being too passive and don't let white sit on e5 with a knight for too long. there's also the early c5 or Bg4 but i don't have much experience with those myself

selfbrain edited

#8

French exchange is a so-called static position type (Another example is Kings Indian with d4xe5 d6xe5).

Static pawn structures are defined by one open file and a pawn ram aside of the open file (here: d4 versus d5). Pawn breaks (here: c2-c4 and c7-c5) isolate the ram pawns.

The main goal for the players is to bring the knights to the key squares, or at least control them. These squares are e5 and c5 for white and e4 and c4 for black.

The control of the open file (and in general, the development) is not soo important, because the position is relatively closed and the entrance squares on the open file can usually be protected.

Black should exchange his Bc8 (bad bishop) and keep his Bf8 (good bishop). White should keep his Bd3 and exchange his Bc1.

Example game:

Winter - Alekhine 1936

https://lichess.org/VfszbElz#49

White commits a serious error with 14.f4?, weakening e4, and later worsens it by allowing h5-h4. Black thankfully installs a superhero on f5 and puts his own pawn to f6, controlling e5. As a result the white knights and especially the Be3 find no place to go and black dominates on the white squares. Black triples his heavy pieces on the open file, partly to prevent Ne3. The other knight decides the game by hopping to the other key square c4 (tactical exercise: calculate the mate in 6 after 27.bxc4). The rest is a precisely calculated transformation, typical for Alekhine.

French exchange is a so-called static position type (Another example is Kings Indian with d4xe5 d6xe5). Static pawn structures are defined by one open file and a pawn ram aside of the open file (here: d4 versus d5). Pawn breaks (here: c2-c4 and c7-c5) isolate the ram pawns. The main goal for the players is to bring the knights to the key squares, or at least control them. These squares are e5 and c5 for white and e4 and c4 for black. The control of the open file (and in general, the development) is not soo important, because the position is relatively closed and the entrance squares on the open file can usually be protected. Black should exchange his Bc8 (bad bishop) and keep his Bf8 (good bishop). White should keep his Bd3 and exchange his Bc1. Example game: Winter - Alekhine 1936 https://lichess.org/VfszbElz#49 White commits a serious error with 14.f4?, weakening e4, and later worsens it by allowing h5-h4. Black thankfully installs a superhero on f5 and puts his own pawn to f6, controlling e5. As a result the white knights and especially the Be3 find no place to go and black dominates on the white squares. Black triples his heavy pieces on the open file, partly to prevent Ne3. The other knight decides the game by hopping to the other key square c4 (tactical exercise: calculate the mate in 6 after 27.bxc4). The rest is a precisely calculated transformation, typical for Alekhine.

#9

Supernick

#10

The main Idea is Ld6, c6, Se7, Lg4, Sd7, Dc7, 0-0-0 for Black and attacking the king of white.
An other idea is Ld6, Sc6, Lg4, Dd7, Se7 0-0-0.

These are the most popular and aggressive plans for black. Normally the black player is the better one because white players, who really wants to win, play more aggressive plans for white.

The main Idea is Ld6, c6, Se7, Lg4, Sd7, Dc7, 0-0-0 for Black and attacking the king of white. An other idea is Ld6, Sc6, Lg4, Dd7, Se7 0-0-0. These are the most popular and aggressive plans for black. Normally the black player is the better one because white players, who really wants to win, play more aggressive plans for white.