How do you defeat the French!

I have been playing a lot of games at my chess club and there is one strong player there that will always play the French as black and Im always at a loss for ideas on how to fight this opening.

Anyone care to share how they play against the french opening?

Hi Artur_Vadim--the French is an enormous system and you can vary the game greatly as early as the third move.  By pushing 3. e5 you lock the center and lead to a slow opening where your pieces gravitate towards a kingside attack.  Whereas 3. exd5 is a very different move that lets both sides develop easily while still keeping that extra tempo from moving first.  There's also 3. Nc3, leading into any number of systems, and even anti-French options before that like 2. d3, 2. g3, 2. c4, 2. Qe2, etc.  It's hard to tell you what to do without knowing what's difficult about it currently.  Try this, which is a (*huge) e-book outlining lots of different great ideas:

http://www.ericschiller.com/pdf/FrenchDefense%20from%20WCO.pdf

The best way to face the French is to simply resign.......

The best way is probably to chant - as a mantra - "la Garde recule" over and over. Begin this as a barely audible whisper, and slowly increase your volume; ensure that your volume is that of a low but solid murmur at the point when Black attacks your center, then continue to slowly increase your volume, and when you see that it has affected your opponent, or when you see a chance to make a bold attacking move in the position, pick your chosen man up, state in a sharp conversational voice "La Garde recule!" and slam the man onto his square as you utter that last syllable. The tide will turn, and you will win the game by cleaning up the scattered chessmen of your opponent's once proud army.

At least, that's how Wellington defeated Naploeon at Waterloo. Of course, it was Napoleon's foot soldiers who screamed "La Garde recule!", but pawns can't talk, so you need to do it for them.

And it probably helped that Napoleon was commanding a green army, had lost his field marshals, and was allegedly suffering from a peculiar mental condition caused by a tumor pressing on his pituitary gland, making him maniacally overconfident

              Noreaster; You have that in reverse. Give it time, They'll surrender. They allways do.

Noreaster wrote:

The best way to face the French is to simply resign.......

(((I love the French))) :)

The easiest ways to get out of the opening imo are 3.exd5 to get open lines, the KIA to get some kind  of attack on the kingside and 3.Nd2 with the idea of never playing e5 so that you get some kind of open position. Playing 3.Nd2 this way can lead to an isolated pawn btw.

If I'm faced with the French defence, I always play 2.d4 (after e4 opening). Is that a sound reply?

Yes, it is, Doggy.

I'm a French player myself and everyone replies... 2. d4

WGM Tatev Abrahamyan has about a dozen videos on the French including a 6 part series on the Winawer.  She considers the Tarrasch to be one of the most annoying white replies and that's good enough for me!

I love playing against the Tarrasch though.....oh well, just my preferences over a GMs.

There are several things to know about the French and as the opening deepens, tricks of the trade. I know some of them. I don't play the French as black at all, but I could go through the idea's for you. 

I dont mind playing against the french in standard lines, but sometimes I just dont feel like getting into those kind of games. here is a line that I play every once in a while that tries to pull black out of his setup.

Im not claiming this line for white is better than standard lines, but it has the ability to take people out of the normal setup they are trying to reach. I think the downside to this opening is whites king position - Black may follow up with Bc5 to hold the pawn.

Simply pair their fromage blanc with an overly brazen Cabernet.  

Or an impudent Zinfandel.  Either one.

thereis no good way to get a big advantage over the french, or the berlin defence.., or the sicilian.., which is why i dont really play e4 anymore..

later

goommba88

There should be a "like" button so I can show my appreciation for motherinlaw's comment.

You know, I really do I love this site.  Besides the chess games and the playful posts, people like jlcon sometimes throw in cool bits of information about history and other subjects -- things I hadn't heard of or had forgotten.  Seriously, I don't remember reading that:

 Napoleon was commanding a green army, had lost his field marshals, and was allegedly suffering from a peculiar mental condition caused by a tumor pressing on his pituitary gland, making him maniacally overconfident.

Thanks, jlconn! :-) .... I'll let y'all get back to chess now.

(Oh, and thanks for the imaginary "Like Button" pushing, iamdave!)