Hi Guys! This is my first time on chess.com, and it looks great! I was wondering about this game I played as Black. I am a French Defence Player. I believe the French Defence is a great opening and gives black one of the best chances to neglect White's opening advantage, yet, in this game, my opponent, white, totally destroyed me. I was wondering, where did I go wrong? After analysing this game for about one hour, and still haven't found my crucial mistake. Your help would be greatly appreciated, as I have some important tournaments coming up, and knowing that I can trust my French Defence if my opponent enters the Nc3 lines would be of great moral support to myself.

 Thank you,

:)

me personally... your 5 move knight ndf7 i think was weak... i would have thrust forward to E4 with the knight... presumedly forcing the swap of the knights, allowing to then take the white's bishop with your bishop... allowing the knight to hook out...and capture white's knight with your queen... or do the straight swap of knight trade with the pawn on e4 and the bishop/queen trade as happended.  ...i guess my point being.  you let white get in your area and did nothing but trade... if you're going to trade.  or look like you're loosing or trading peices. jack up their plans somewhat by getting in their space.  ...the forward pawn.   or having your queen way out in the open on white's king side.  i feel is better position.  rather than having all the trades take place right smack dab in your lower center... from that first weak trade seems like you were constantly on the run/making bad trades.   then again..take my advice with a grain of salt.  very novice player

also think your 16 ...queen to g6 was ill advised.  again... the main flaw i see in the game is you were hemmed up in your lower center.  that knight you moved, pins in your rook... by not letting the white aligned bishop any means of movement.  i would've gone 16 queen to d6 and then probably..no matter the cost swung out that back knight, into the E file...   using the pair of knights to run around the board some.  then try and get in the E file with the paired rooks.  i dunno. you were awfully pinned in.  and cramped.  i think stemming all from that weaker knight move early on.

why did u give up your queen?

1. You didn't play the Winawer. ;-). Just kidding.

 

I didn't like 12. ... Rd8. Why not play Rb8 here to push the b-pawn. 

 

14. ... cxd4 might have kept white's attack at bay. If he still tries to sac with 15. Rxe6 you have 15. ... dxc3. 

 

Just my thoughts, please take with a grain of salt. :-) 

I don't like 10...f6, you give yourself a backward pawn on a half open file, that's such an easy target to attack. 10...cxd4 might have been better, white is planning to castle queen side this gives an open file to attack whites king.

You should have refrained from f6 and played c4 after he castled queenside. You would've been ahead in the pawn-race.

The best response to 3 Nc3 is Bb4 - Winawer. Then white will have a problem. Of course you must be an expert in pawns and be prepared to "dance your king around"  (escape from checks) :)

this is one of my game playing against the french

12...pxp is more popular than 12...Rd8, but looks ok.  So whole game decided by whether 15Rxp is good or not. If it is then you had to play something like 14...Nf8. No disgrace to miss  something like Rxp though.