Often times in the french, black will play an ...f6 to try to undermine whites center. If white were to recapture via exf6, is it better to recapture with the knight or the g-pawn? If you were to recapture with the knight, then the d pawn would be backwards. If you were to recapture with the g-pawn, then the kingside would be weakened. Both recaptures have their pros and cons and I would like to know which is better.

Also, I always come to the point where my kings safety is dangerous. I dont really know whether to castle kingside, castle queenside, or not castle at all. Since the center is usually closed, should I not castle at all? I'm not really sure.

One last question. Is black supposed to do a queenside attack via a pawn storm with the a and b pawns?

If you could answer these, that would be great. :D

Maybe your king safety becomes an issue because of f6? Dunno, I'm no expert

0.0 that makes sense

I've played the french fairly often and the f-pawn break doesn't usually come up too often for me, unlike the c-pawn break.  Either capture has its advantages (capturing with the g-pawn allows additional breaks in the center), so you have to judge based on the position.  Take a look through some games by master to get a good sense for it.

As far as castling, I tend not to castle often.  Castling queenside is almost always a bad idea since the c-pawn break leaves the queenside too exposed for the king.  The center is usually closed for a long time with the french, so castling is not always necessary, but watch out for the center to suddenly open up on you.  In my games, by the time the board naturally opens up, there has been enough trades that the king isn't in much danger anymore and is well placed in the center.

A queenside side attack with a6 followed by b5 is a possible way of attacking in the french, especially in the advance variation.  I've had fairly good success with it, but it can be a little slow and its possible to become overwhelmed by white on the kingside; but that's the french in general.  The most important theme for black in the french is the undermining of white's d4 pawn, especially in the classical and advance french.

That's my two cents anyway; hope that's helpful.

The idea is that after you recapture with the knight the backward pawn is offset by the open f-file and the open c-file. Its up to you whether this is enough compensation for the positional concession or not

In the winawer, the recapture ...gxf6 is common, if you're going to castle queenside. It opens the g file and allows ...e5 to be played, and black usually wants to close queenside files with ...c4. But most of the time a piece recapture is more normal and solid; it all depends on the specific position though. I would disagree though that castling queenside is always bad in the french, because many times even in the advance variation black goes queenside, with the idea of recapturing on f6 with the g pawn or to play ...g5 and ...g4 to attack a knight and indirectly pressure the center quite a bit. Black just has to keep his c pawn on c5 or push it to c4 and he's often fine. If he has played ...cxd4 totally opening the c file, then it's usually bad. You know, it's a complex opening, and for the french general guidelines probably won't give you an understanding of the position. You should get a french defense book to know the ideas better so that you can find out what's correct yourself with the new knowledge.

For example, black's goal is often to remove the center pawns, but even if he does, it will only be good if his center pawns are mobile. If not, then they give white central squares on d4 and e5 (basically replacing the pawns). So it's double edged and all depends.

Elubas, good point. I think it'll be too complicated for me. I'd rather not get that complicated...

It depends on what line of the french you are playing. I can't think of any where the g pawn is better its most often the knight captures pawn  then the bishop goes out then castle 0-0

I always see where you want to castle but the kingside is too dangerous to castle. From what I've read sometimes its better to wait. Others even recommend castling 0-0-0.

Recommended Reading: New in chess Moskalenko The Flexible French or Everymans french classical.

It does depend on variation. the ...gxf6 capture is common in the winawer (because castling queenside is a serious option) but in most other variations it is rarely done, but I play the winawer...