Can anyone explain the merits of the French defense?  I've tried playing with it a couple of times but I always end up with a ridiculously cramped position with the inevitable pawn advancement.

You are guarding the weak point at f7 from attack.  You need to expand quickly on the queenside attacking the base of the white pawn chain in the centre.  f6 is a typical move to attack e5 and reinstate a N on f6.  Look out for greek gift sacrifices on h7.  Avoid in general the exchange of your king bishop, otherwise you get a dark-square weakness on the kingside.  And of course, look for opportunities to untrap your 'bad' bishop on c8.  It's a difficult opening to play as black, no mistake, but if you get good with it, it is solid.  I know from reading the forums that a lot of people here dont like playing white against it.  GL

thanks a lot I'll try that out

Play d5 after e6 and counter in the center.  Get c5 in later and maybe a potential f6

I love playing white against it :)...

There's an International Correspondence Master that plays on this site (Ronald Weyerstrass for those interested) who is very well known for the french.  I have a game against him right now in this line and he is killing me! 

beane wrote:

Can anyone explain the merits of the French defense?  I've tried playing with it a couple of times but I always end up with a ridiculously cramped position with the inevitable pawn advancement.

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You either hate or love the French. There seems to be no mid-ground to it. There are many books etc on the French but only a   few are wothwhile.                                                            Ari Ziegler's The French Defense CD ISBN 3937549978 by Chessbase is great. He explains his own personal repertoire explaining the ideas in words, the choices to be made while playing through games.                                                            The French is an aggressive attacking opening from 2....d4 on. Passive play quickly dooms you.

Fischer didn't like the French and Garry Kasparov said  it 'loses by force', but for those of us rated below 2800 it's a solid and reliable choice.

Black's 'French bishop' on c8 can easily turn bad as black has all his pawns on light squares so you might want to try the lines involving a quick b6 and Ba6 to swap it off.

John Watsons 'Play the French' is an excellent repertoire book with lots of nice active lines for the black player.

Famous French defence exponents include Victor Korchnoi, Nigel Short, and Predrag Nikolic amongst many others... 

I believe f6 and c5 are two crucial pawn advances that black will need to make to stay in the game.

If you start playing the French, make sure you don't let your position slowly get constricted until you have no maneuvering ability.

Try playing the games of those who prefer the french as black and try to get a feel of the opening. Yusupov, Bareev, Trigran vartanovich Petrosian, Botvinnik

I love playing the french. Is there any opening , like a reverse french, for white? Also, what does one play against d4 and c4 if you, as in me, are a french player?

The consensus in general is that The French is extremely dynamic, with lots of messy and unclear positions.

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I guess if you just waste a move like 1.h3 then you could just play almost as if you're playing Black with the White pieces, if you really like it so much that you're prepared to do that. Something like 1.e6 would not really give you positions similar to the French if you're not willing to give up a tempo. There's no clear answer to your other question as 1.d4 and 1.c4 are entirely different to 1.e4. Therefore you have to find another opening/s to meet those. I can't think of anything similar to the French as it's rather unique I'm afraid. After 1.d4 e6 not many of your opponents if they know what they are doing will satisfy you and play 2.e4...

the french rocks, its been my main defense for years.  mxdplay4 summed it up well, always look to counter attack the center (d4 in particular) with c5, Nc6, Qb6 and Ne7/h6-f5.  the queen bishop is a problem that ive never solved. it usually ends up on d7 in my games then hopefully i can trade it off on the a6-f1 diagonal, ive tried the b6 variations with the bishop going to a6 the resulting positions arent to my taste but thats a personal opinion, you might like them just fine.  always look out for a bishop sac on h7 if you dont have a knight on f6, it also helps if you have a queen/bishop battery on the d8-h4 diagonal to defend against Ng5+ (after Bxh7+ KxB). 

Here's French, and it's various variations. Good luck.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Defence

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I usually start against 1.c4 or 1.d4 with 1. ... e6 , by then it's no long way to the dutch systems.From there on it is often somehow managable to reach familiar positions.

You might as well take up the Nimzo-Bogo indian complex for the rest.

I've seen the French coupled with the Dutch quite a bit for a complete black repertoire. This works with the Classical or Stonewall Dutch, both of which include e6 early, but not the Leningrad, where black doesn't play e6. I actually play the Classical Dutch with e6 before f5 to avoid a lot of the anti-Dutch lines. I don't play the French that much any more, though. If I did, it would pretty much be an "e6 against everything" repertoire as black.

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You could always try 1... e6 against either 1. c4 or 1. d4, but as nuclearturkey said, if your opponents are d4 or c4 players, they are likely not looking to transpose to an e4 game with 1. d4 e6 2. e4 d5. 

So, you could simply learn the Queen's Gambit Declined (1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6) and prepare for transpositions from 1. d4 e6 or 1. c4 e6, or learn the Nimzo/Queen's/Bogo Indian defenses.  That will give you a response to players that don't steer the game into a French with 2. e4, but will still allow that rare transposition when the white player complies.