French Defence Overview

The French defence (1.e4 e6) is named after a correspondence chess game in 1834 between the cities London and Paris. It had a bad reputation during the 19th century and was for example called by the first world chess champion Wilhelm Steinitz "the dullest of all openings". The basic idea of the opening is to continue with 2.-d5 and claim a part of the center. Of course this didn't allow the romantic style players of the 19th century their normal open games with an occasionaly bishop on c4 threatening blacks weak spot on f7.

In the 20th century Geza Marozcy was one of the first strong players to use it on a regular basis. Other world class players who followed him doing so were

• Aron Nimzowitsch
• Mikhail Botvinnik (World Champion)
• Victor Korchnoi
• Tigran Petrosjan (World Champion)
• Wolfgang Uhlmann
• Rafael Vaganian
• Lev Psakhis
• Evgeny Bareev
• Mikhail Gurevich
• Nigel Short
• Gata Kamsky
• Alexander Khalifman (World Champion)
• Smbat Lputian
• Alexander Morozevich
• Teimour Radjabov
• Viktor Moskalenko

We organize the material in these chapters:

• Rare Continuations (2.b3, 2.Nf3, 2,Bb5, 2.c4, 2.e5, etc.)
• Chigorin Variation (2.Qe2)
• King's Indian Attack (2.d3)
• Exchange Variation (1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5)
• Advance Variation (1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5)
• Tarrasch Variation 3.-Sc6 and others ( 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 Nc6)
• Tarrasch Variation 3.-Nf6 (1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 Nf6)
• Tarrasch Variation 3.-c5 (1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 c5)
• Tarrasch Variation 3.-c5 4,exd5 Qxd5 (1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 c5 4.exd5 Qxd5)
• Rubinstein and Burn Variations (1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3/Nd2 dze4 4.Nxe4)
• Steinitz Variation (1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e5)
• McCutcheon Variation (1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Bb4)
• Classical System (1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Be7)
• Winawer Variation 4th move alternatives White (1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.a3 / 4.Qg4 / 4.Qd3 / 4.Bd3 / 4.Bd2 / 4.Ne2)
• Winawer Variation 4.e5 b6 (1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 b6)
• Winawer Variation 4.e5 c5 (1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 c5)
• Winawer Variation 7.Qg4 (1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 c5 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 Ne7 7.Qg4)
• Winawer Variation 7.h4 (1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 c5 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 Ne7 7.h4)
• Winawer Variation 7.Nf3 (1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 c5 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 Ne7 7.Nf3)
• Winawer Variation 7.a4 (1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 c5 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 Ne7 7.a4)

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