French Defense

• At a glance

  French Defense

  37 games, 47.3%: ChessNetwork's French, with one fixed idea, trading the c8 bishop. …Bd7 and …Bb5 against the Advance, …Qd7 and …Ba6 against the Winawer, and the Tarrasch as the weak spot.

  15 cards, one idea each. Swipe to move on.

• The big idea

  Your games: 142× · you score 49%

  Against 1.e4, ChessNetwork also plays 1…e6. The French's problem is well known: the c8 bishop, locked behind the e6 and d5 pawns.

• The big idea

  His answer is the same in every line, trade it: with …Bd7 and …Bb5 against the Advance, with …b6 and …Ba6 against the Winawer.

• The big idea

  Your games: 6× · you score 33%

  37 games, 47.3%, above his score with Black (45.3%). The dossier flags no recurring move that Stockfish disputes. The weak spot is the Tarrasch, 3.Nd2: 33% in 6 games.

• The big idea

  The thread of the course: in a closed structure, a piece's quality matters more than its value. The c8 bishop is the piece Black wants to trade, the f1 bishop the one White wants to keep.

• Principle

  Trade the bad bishop

  With pawns on d5 and e6, the c8 bishop has no future. …Bd7 then …Bb5 trades it for White's good bishop.

• Principle

  Hit the chain at its base

  Your games: 8× · you score 56%

  Against the Advance, …c5 and …Qb6 strike d4, the base of White's pawn chain.

• Principle

  Against the Winawer, …b6 and …Ba6

  With the queen on d7, …b6 and …Ba6 trade the c8 bishop for the f1 bishop.

• Principle

  Against Qg4, the bishop returns to f8

  When White's queen attacks g7, …Bf8 defends it, at the cost of a tempo.

• Imbalance

  Space against counterplay

  Your games: 10× · you score 60%

  Against the Advance, the e5 pawn gives White kingside space. Black plays on the queenside, against d4.

• Imbalance

  Good bishop against bad bishop

  Your games: 10× · you score 60%

  White's f1 bishop has open diagonals, Black's c8 bishop is blocked by its own pawns. Trading them favors Black.

• Imbalance

  The Tarrasch isolated pawn

  After exd5 exd5, Black often gets an isolated d-pawn: active pieces, but a fixed target.

• The trade-off

  What you gain

  • One fixed idea: trading the c8 bishop.
  • Against the Advance, 60% in 10 games.
  • No recurring move that Stockfish disputes.
• The trade-off

  What you give up

  • The Tarrasch, 3.Nd2, gives him 33% in 6 games.
  • The Winawer with 4…Qd7 leaves White a slight space edge.
  • Against Qg4, the f8 bishop has to come back, which costs a tempo.
• That's all

  Your turn

  These ideas only stick once you play the moves. The chapters make you find the right ones.

  Start chapter 1

Card 1 of 15: French Defense

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