Survey for French Players

I am currently creating a repertoire for myself, (I made another topic yesterday about the Vienna vs Scotch as a white opening). Anyway, I have chosen to study the French as my response against 1. e4.

I am curious about the opinions of intermediate-advanced French Players on a few questions. Answer a few, or all of them however you want:

Why did you choose the French
What is your favorite variation(s) to play in the French
What is your least favorite variation(s) in the French
What variation do you face most in the French at your level
How did you learn the opening. What resources helped the most (videos, books, courses...)
What do you like to play against d4
Any other insights on the French?

@DillWithThePickle said in #1:
>
> I am curious about the opinions of intermediate-advanced French Players on a few questions. Answer a few, or all of them however you want:
>
> Why did you choose the French
> What is your favorite variation(s) to play in the French
> What is your least favorite variation(s) in the French
> What variation do you face most in the French at your level
> How did you learn the opening. What resources helped the most (videos, books, courses...)
>
>

I'm not an intermediate nor an advanced player, but if it helps you I'll join the discussion.

To answer some of your questions:

- I chose the French because I wasn't good at manage games with 1....,e5 well. So I tried French Defense, I immediately felt better, so I adopted it without reservations.

- I don't have any favorite or disliked variations, I'm happy with them all. Generally, with any variation I can counterattack later, or open the game ( but with the king more protected ).

- My opponents often play 2.Nf3, but also 2.d4 and then 3.e5 (or 3.exd5) ; more rarely 2.Nc3

- I have not "studied" it seriously, that is, in books or videos ( it is too early to dedicate myself to a systematic study of openings ). I have seen its main lines, then I tried and practiced them through many unrated games.

It's been a long time, I forget exactly why I started. I'm pretty certain though that I wanted to learn something new, and to broaden my understanding of middlegame themes and ideas from what I was familiar with (pirc/rat, dragon, KID, benoni). Why I chanced on the french, rather than something else, I don't know. But I did very quickly turn to Botvinnik 100 Selected games. He and Smislov played a lot of french games, with B almost always taking the black side. When I thought it was time to have a reference book on my shelf, I purchased Watson's Play the French that was the first edition. The theory has moved on a lot since then, but I have picked up a few other resources since. (the third edition of PtF for example. I like Watson as an author)
Following in Botvinnik's footsteps, I play the winawer variation. Every Chance I Get. But I'm thinking of taking up the McCutcheon, just to have a second string. I'm also used to playing the other main lines, of course.
White's main options against the french are the old main line with 2.d4 and 3.Nc3, the Tarrasch 3.Nd2, the advance 3.e5, the exchange 3exd5 (or the winawer exchange, 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.exd5), and the KIA. Fashions come and go. I've been seeing the exchange quite a bit lately, but that's no guarantee I will see it next game.
I am mostly an e4 player with white, so I get to play against the french almost as often as I get to play it. Back in Canada, I have a friend whose rating matched my own, and he too is mostly an e4 player with white and a frequent french player with black. We have played a lot of games, with each of the main variations except the exchange. Neither of us can bring ourselves to surrender white's opening advantage so easily.

@DillWithThePickle said in #1:
> Why did you choose the French
Because I thought I was temperamentally suited to it, liking the defensive setups which aim to wait for the endgame.

> What is your favorite variation(s) to play in the French
Advance and Winawer variations where White plays e5. I like to respond with an early ...b6 and ...Ba6 exchanging the "bad" light-squared bishop.

> What is your least favorite variation(s) in the French
Tarrasch variation 3.Nd2. I typically neutralise this with 3...dxe4 transposing into the Rubinstein variation.

> What variation do you face most in the French at your level
Currently the Advance Variation 3.e5. This is fashion, though. I used to get 3.Nc3 much more often.

> How did you learn the opening. What resources helped the most (videos, books, courses...)
Openings books (I had several by Tim Harding) and "Informator"-style publications of recent games and theory. This was back in the 1980s before the internet.

> What do you like to play against d4
Used to play the Queen's Gambit Accepted a lot. These days typically Nimzo-Indian and Queen's Indian defences.

> Any other insights on the French?
Expect an attack on your king. Don't play the opening at all if you dislike defending. Don't commit to kingside castling too early: sometimes it's safer left in the middle or castled to the other side. Aim for the endgame!

@DillWithThePickle said in #1:

> Why did you choose the French
I don't remember. I liked it after trying so...
> What is your favorite variation(s) to play in the French
Rubinstein. I used to play the Winawer, but its too sharp and I need to study a lot of lines. I find the rubinstein simpler.
> What is your least favorite variation(s) in the French
Exchange. I don't wanna play an open-centred game. Advanced is also annoying at times.
> What variation do you face most in the French at your level
1. Exchange, 2. Advance, 3. 2.Nf3, 4. Nc3 lines
> How did you learn the opening. What resources helped the most (videos, books, courses...)
I used chessable for learning the winawer. For rubinstein, I used Lichess explorer.
> What do you like to play against d4
Nimzo/Queen's Indian
> Any other insights on the French?
Be ready to play cramped postions!

I thought that this thread was intended to survey players who were from France! How utterly mistaken I am lol :)

@SwApNeEl1 said in #6:
> I thought that this thread was intended to survey players who were from France! How utterly mistaken I am lol :)
Oh, I see how you would have thought that, sorry!

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the QGD as a d4 defense, I've heard it is similar to the French

> Why did you choose the French
I find e4 difficult to play against. French is a reasonable choice. It combines being strong and comparatively easy as well as fun.

> What is your favorite variation(s) to play in the French
Advance variation.

> What variation do you face most in the French at your level
Exchange variation

> How did you learn the opening. What resources helped the most (videos, books, courses...)
Videos, online discussions, Lichess opening explorer and my own experience.

> What do you like to play against d4
d5. If white plays the Queen's gambit I play Queen's gambit declined. It has a similar pawn structure to the French, but the games tend to look mostly different.

i used some random bullcrap move on the go
no theory needed