French Defense Problem....

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Ritesh1304

My white bishop becomes bad bishop every time ....is it my fault or fault of opening .......

D_for_DJ
Ritesh1304 wrote:

My white bishop becomes bad bishop every time ....is it my fault or fault of opening .......

Fault of the opening. That is why no one plays the french seriously at top level. Switch to the Najdorf and never look back.


Here is an example of the true power of the najdorf! Making a Master level player look like a chump. Cool


 


podjevsky

Both:) The light squared bishop is  a trouble-child in the French defence (and other defences putting pawns on c6/e6). 

If you end up with only your white-squared bishop against white's knight, white has reached his dream position.

Often in the french try to exchange the white-squared bishop ( b6 Ba6 in some variations) or after you have played f6 play the biship to g6 via e8.

The reverse is sometimes true for white.  In many variation white tries to exchange his dark-squared bishop cause his pawns are stuch on dark squares (b2-c3-d5-e5).

So so summarize. The light-squared bishop is a problem for french players. Be very aware of this and try to exchange it or improve its position.

molokombo

it's partly your fault and partly the openings. a big key to playing the french is solving the problem of your light squared bishop, by either trading it for whites, or activating it with maneuvers like d7-e8-h5 (after playing the f6 break).

you need to be thinking about how to sort this issue out from the very first moves if you want to be successful with the french.

D_for_DJ
Ritesh1304 wrote:

My white bishop becomes bad bishop every time ....is it my fault or fault of opening .......

All lines of play which lead to the imprisonment of the bishop are on principle to be condemned. 

by Tarrasch

Likhit1

Please don't take post #2 seriously.The bad light squared bishop is the major drawback of the french defense.But there are various lines in which this problem can be solved.For ex.

This is a popular line of the advance french in which black solves his bad bishop problem.There are various lines of the tarrasch in which Black can play the typical manouver Bd7,Be8,Bh5.

I can't say anything about the classical variation because I don't play it but in the Winawer,especially in the poisoned pawn lines,The light squared bishop becomes a very good piece as it can be put on c6 from which it eyes the long diagonal.

D_for_DJ

I just played against the french defence around 3 min's ago. Here is an example of what i am talking about.This shows blacks light sq bishop problem. During the endgame all his pawns are on White sq's, the same sq's of his bishop. 



DefinitelyNotGM
D_for_DJ wrote:
Ritesh1304 wrote:

My white bishop becomes bad bishop every time ....is it my fault or fault of opening .......

Fault of the opening. That is why no one plays the french seriously at top level. Switch to the Najdorf and never look back.


Here is an example of the true power of the najdorf! Making a Master level player look like a chump. 


 


 

What exactly is wrong with the Closed Sicilian? And don't make openings into puzzles, they become a test of telepathy/lucky guessing. Even Chess Mentor makes that mistake in the course 'Be ready for the Reti'

D_for_DJ
DefinitelyNotGM wrote:
D_for_DJ wrote:
Ritesh1304 wrote:

My white bishop becomes bad bishop every time ....is it my fault or fault of opening .......

Fault of the opening. That is why no one plays the french seriously at top level. Switch to the Najdorf and never look back.


Here is an example of the true power of the najdorf! Making a Master level player look like a chump. 


 


 

What exactly is wrong with the Closed Sicilian? And don't make openings into puzzles, they become a test of telepathy/lucky guessing. Even Chess Mentor makes that mistake in the course 'Be ready for the Reti'

Nothing is wrong with the Closed Sicilian. If your fine with a draw, then it's a perfect opening for you. Tongue Out

schlechter55

Yet another example where DJ shows that he trolls and/or does not understand chess.

1. French opening IS played on top level. Databases show it.

2. The bad bishop Bc8 in French defense is in theory and practice of strong players compensated by two active knights who attack the white center (from c6, d7, f5 or g6). In contrast to this, the white knights are often only defending for some time the pawn outposts d4 and e5 (from f3, e2).

The task of the Black side in French defense is not only to (anxiously) find a good place for the Bc8, but in the first place to continue attacking the white center, and to use its active knights.

Some World champions and Super GMs of the past have used the French defense to win countless games against their strongest competitors:

Botwinnik, Bronstein, Petrosian.

For those who love Fischer , I refer to the games

(a) Fischer-Tal, where Tal DREW the game with a spectacular combination, Olympiade, Leipzig 1961.

(b) The several games Fischer-Petrosian, where Petrosian always came out well from the opening. I believe his score with Fischer in this opening is positive !

molokombo
D_for_DJ wrote:
Ritesh1304 wrote:

My white bishop becomes bad bishop every time ....is it my fault or fault of opening .......

All lines of play which lead to the imprisonment of the bishop are on principle to be condemned. 

by Tarrasch


yeah, the qgd is pretty bad.

D_for_DJ
schlechter55 wrote:

Yet another example where DJ shows that he trolls and/or does not understand chess.

1. French opening IS played on top level. Databases show it.

2. The bad bishop Bc8 in French defense is in theory and practice of strong players compensated by two active knights who attack the white center (from c6, d7, f5 or g6). In contrast to this, the white knights are often only defending for some time the pawn outposts d4 and e5 (from f3, e2).

The task of the Black side in French defense is not only to (anxiously) find a good place for the Bc8, but in the first place to continue attacking the white center, and to use its active knights.

Some World champions and Super GMs of the past have used the French defense to win countless games against their strongest competitors:

Botwinnik, Bronstein, Petrosian.

For those who love Fischer , I refer to the games

(a) Fischer-Tal, where Tal DREW the game with a spectacular combination, Olympiade, Leipzig 1961.

(b) The several games Fischer-Petrosian, where Petrosian always came out well from the opening. I believe his score with Fischer in this opening is positive !

Ahhh schlechter55... The prodigal son returns. How i miss you. Smile

Likhit1
D_for_DJ wrote:
Ritesh1304 wrote:

My white bishop becomes bad bishop every time ....is it my fault or fault of opening .......

All lines of play which lead to the imprisonment of the bishop are on principle to be condemned. 

by Tarrasch

The closed Ruy lopez is bad?I wonder why Peter Svidler played it against Magnus Carlsen in the last round of the candidates.

schlechter55
pfren wrote:

The french LSB is bad only if you treat him badly.

I agree 100%.

Ruy Lopez: Black imprisons his Bishop on e7.

QG, Orthodox defense: Black imprisons his Bishop on c8.

Both defenses are alive, and played until now.

D_for_DJ
pfren wrote:

The french LSB is bad only if you treat him badly.

True lol

schlechter55
D_for_DJ wrote:
pfren wrote:

The french LSB is bad only if you treat him badly.

True lol

thx for proving that noone must take your inputs seriously.

An IM appears, and you switch to the truth, lol.

schlechter55

The opinion of many chess teachers is (wrongly) influenced by Tarrasch's emphasis on bad bishops, and the bonmot :

'One piece is bad, hence the whole game is bad'. These opinions sound from the modern, dynamic point of view too simple.

Just to argue with it: why are the teachers not talking about good and bad knights ? Isn't there is a whole ensemble of pieces on the board ?

Although Tarrasch himself avoided playing French and QG Orthodox (and advertised the Tarrasch defense in QG),  in his excellent book '300 chess games' you will find many examples, where the side with the bad bishop wins the game. Note, that book was called by Petrosian the best chess book.  

lovsovs
schlechter55 wrote:

Yet another example where DJ shows that he trolls and/or does not understand chess.

1. French opening IS played on top level. Databases show it.

2. The bad bishop Bc8 in French defense is in theory and practice of strong players compensated by two active knights who attack the white center (from c6, d7, f5 or g6). In contrast to this, the white knights are often only defending for some time the pawn outposts d4 and e5 (from f3, e2).

The task of the Black side in French defense is not only to (anxiously) find a good place for the Bc8, but in the first place to continue attacking the white center, and to use its active knights.

Some World champions and Super GMs of the past have used the French defense to win countless games against their strongest competitors:

Botwinnik, Bronstein, Petrosian.

For those who love Fischer , I refer to the games

(a) Fischer-Tal, where Tal DREW the game with a spectacular combination, Olympiade, Leipzig 1961.

(b) The several games Fischer-Petrosian, where Petrosian always came out well from the opening. I believe his score with Fischer in this opening is positive !

The Fischer-Tal game is from 1960.

schlechter55

thanks for pointing this out. I was trusting my memory.

schlechter55

I do not believe that the variant 1.e4 e6, 2.d4 d5, 3.e5 c5, 4.c3 Nc6, 5.Nf3 Qb6 gives White any theoretical advantage, in none of the pathes 6.Be2,  6.Bd3 and 6.a3.