2.Qe2 in the French defense

A few days ago I came across some articles about 2.Qe2 in the French defense. I knew about that line already years ago, but never tried it or looked into it. It is a nice way to avoid the main French defense lines, where many opponent might be ready for.

The idea of 2.Qe2, from the great Chigorin, is to discourage 2.d7d5.

In the meant time I played 10 games with it with white, and scored 10 out of 10.

This is quite good because I don't score so well against various lines of the French defense. In some lines I score good but in others I don't.

And for example, the Alekhine-Chatard gambit line can be fun to play but black has so many options there (c7c5, a7a6, f7f6?!, h7h6) that it would require much more homework for me to do.

And black can vary already with the Bb4 lines, or early d5xe4.

The 2.Qe2 is unusual, and might surprise some of the black players, and the 2.Qe2 is quite easy to learn. It is more like a system like the KIA, and not an opening line with lots of well-known theory.

Let's have a look.

For further reading :

Chigorin's queen move | ChessVibes

French 2.Qe2...Blacks best. - Chess.com

Chess for All Ages: 1.e4 e6 2.Qe2