How to create activity as black against the exchange french?

I like playing the French defense but whenever white throws the exchange variation I run out of ideas. It is so symetrical it seems hard to find attacking ideas as black. Any helpful illustrative games here on how to play actively in this variation?

interesting question...i dont think i can remember the last time i played against the exchange variation...

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. exd5 exd5

i imagine black following with 4. ... c5

i know this is inviting white to capture 5. dxc5 leaving black with an isolated queen pawn.  like all isolated pawns, the IQP is an inherent weakness that can loose black the endgame.  however...this is still move 5 and the endgame is (hopefully) still too far away.  the IQP is the lone pawn in the center, and as such severely cramps white's position (and gives black the space advantage)!! if white cannot solve this problem quick enough, or does not consider this a big enough problem, there may not be any endgame for him :)

black's plan would be...to generate as much piece activity as he can!

- muster his pieces behind the IQP to keep his center pawn protected.  but this is not just protecting the lone pawn.  behind the IQP is where black's space advantage is.  if his forces can gather here, it will be their springboard for a coordinated attack against the white king.

- protect the d4 square! black must not just dehend his IQP, he must also guard the square in front of it.  black must always keep in mind that he will want to move the IQP forward to further cramp white's position.  the further ahead the IQP moves, the more potent it becomes.  before the IQP becomes black's endgame headache, it is first his middlegame shield and battering ram :)

- if plan A and plan B above fails...exchange the IQP away before the endgame...and improvise plan C :D

so i guess im imagining the exchange variation problem to become one of an IQP problem for black.  i'm not sure if there are articles/videos/books/tutorials on IQP positions here or the internet, but there must be.  i mean, it is the internet afterall.

if you're interested in this plan and you can get your hands on this book: "50 Essential Chess Lessons"...it has devoted four illustrative games from grandmaster play on how to take advantage (and defend against) IQP positions.  its quite a good read.

Interesting idea. I've been toying with ideas of after e4, e6, d4, d5, exd5, exd5, Bd3, Nc6 (hoping to provoke c3), c3, Bd6, Nf3 then I play Nge7 with ideas of Bg4 pin and bringing the knight on e7 to g6 to gum up my opponents ideas against h7 and cover my opponents outpost on e5, castle long and start a pawn storm against my opponent's kingside.

I've been focused on more advance French and Winawer as they seem to be the fundamental lines of the French set up (and some structural overlap with the lines I like to play in the Caro-Kann and ). 

that looks like a good idea too...both black and white seem to be toe to toe on development...but it seems white has the slight advantage as he has a firmer grip of center (th pawn at c3 is a very good defender of white's d pawn and will be tough to budge)...

the pawn storm could work too, maybe even with the king castled short (so you get the rook on an important file and the king as a defender)...but you may have to find a way to shuffle the majority of your forces to the king's side before you start the storm (may not be simple w/ white controlling the center)

after your move 6. ... Nge7, i think white could launch his own kingside pawn storm before you.  you need  to move your queen, light square bishop, and castle long...that's 3moves...wheras white now has a more active knight on the kingside and open diagonals on the kingside for both his bishops and his queen...there might be a tactic brewing there somewhere (if not a pawn storm)...

but i dunno...tough call.  looks like a deceptively complicated position (but isnt it always w/ the french :p)

btw...ive never had the chance to study or play the winawer variation yet.  looks...aggressive for black :) i tend to be a one trick pony with the french and just play c5 on my third move most of the time :p is there a name for that variation???

Jason,

In terms of playing the Exchange French. I try and play a similar system to yourself. I look to play Nc6, Bd6, Nge7, Bg4, Qd7 (important as it can stop any Greek gifts resulting in loss of bishop if you castle short) and then either castle short or long. I tend to respond to either Bg5 or Ne5 with f6. This pawn then supports any pawn storm should I castle long and go for the pawn storm. The other advantage of keeping your knight on e7 is that it gives you the option of moving your bishop back to f5 or g6 and swapping off bishops.

As far as learning the Winawer goes, I am not sure it is worth the effort at your level. In several hundred games at chess.com I have only seen 3Nc3 a handful of times, maybe your experience is different.

What about 3. ... Qxd4!?! 4. Nc3 Bb4!!

I play the Exchange French as White, and what I want to know is: How can *White* create any useful activity? Keep in mind that I don't advance my c pawn to c4, but rather to c3, since I'm trying to keep my own pawn structure intact--the same goal as Black. I'm not sure what to do as White as far as strategy.

Playing c4 will result in an isolated Queen's pawns. However, these can be a strength and not a weakness in the middlegame. Have look at the IQP videos on this site. They are worth knowing about as they appear in a number of openings.

play assymetrically. if white goes Nf3 go Nc6-Bd6-Nge7 intending castling queenside and a kingside pawn stom with f6-g5-h4 etc, if white goes Nc3 go Nf6 eventually followed by a queenside pawn storm c6-b5-a5 etc.

as white playing the exchange french i think aiming for a reversed Nc6 setup (Nc3-Bd3-Nge2 etc) is pretty interesting and was my white choice for a while, though unsurprisingly black has a few options to make the game less interesting, symmetrical pawn structures often lead to that. :p

Over a hundred years ago players like Alekhine and Nimzowitch especially were finding ways to win for black.Chould do worse than looking up these classic games, which are well annotated lots of places. For example, first game of Capablanca v Alekhine match 1927. More recently Korchnoi used c5 ideas. This is not a new problem, or really a problem. Recently only Kasparov of strong players tried the exchange as white, and then only briefly.

The simple and blunt answer is, you can't.  It's a symmetrical pawn structure, and you have to play with patience.  If you try to blast at the White King, you will lose.  The last time I played an exchange French, I won via accepting the fact that it would be a slow, methodical game.

To see what I mean, go to http://www.theweekinchess.com/twic and download number 1034 (Dated September 1, 2014) and go to game number 658 (Eisen - McCartney).  Yes, it started off a Petroff and not a French, but after 6 moves, it's a direct transposition to the Exchange French after 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 exd5 4.Nf3 Nf6, only it took us 6 moves to reach that position instead of 4.

You will also notice that symmetry had been kept for a long time, but eventually I broke the symmetry, created a passed pawn after a heated battle in the middlegame, and the pawn is what ultimate won it, not some blazing attack at the White King.

Think 4...Nf6 and your approach perfectly good but from the french move order black can make assymettrical choices  earlier if want to. A lot of the classic games are here.

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chesscollection?cid=1019741