French exchange:why does everyone play this?!

why does everyone play this mind-numbingly boring opening!

they do it because they're afraid or something?....ironically enough....they still get defeated....at least they could lose in a more interesting game though

well "everyone" is a bit of exaggeration....but most people play it here yes...it's frustrating.

So, what do you play against the French? :-)

I never do the exchange variation either. I love dynamic situations on board too much, but with a french player who knows what he's doing its tough indeed.

My experience is that here on chess.com live chess most white opponents play the advance variation against the French, while in my OTB tournament games most play the exchange variation ...

I play the Tarrasch most the times...sometimes the La Bourdonnais or advance

What's wrong (or boring) with Black getting easy equality in the first 3 moves? The FD exchange var for White is a patzer line, of the patzers, by the patzers, for the patzers. And yes I know Kasparov played it at least once in a serious game, but we're down in the troposphere and he's up in the exosphere; so his "endorsement" probably isn't applicable to most of us at chess.com

hmmm....it's surprising to me that even the greats played the exchange variation.the position just seems too balanced to me compared to the other more dynamic lines (Winawer,Tarrasch,advance etc).

I too don't see it too often. Unless I'm playing against someone much lower rated.

Viktor Moskalenko (a French expert) says in his books that his score against the exchange variation is far greater than any other French variation. Obviously this is partly due to the fact the exhange is used by weak players aiming to draw against higher rated opponents. Anyway, if you know your stuff, you shouldn't be bothered at all by the "drawishness" of it. After all, there are still thirty pieces onboard after move three, aren't they?

 That's why

Huh... I always seem to get a Winawer. Maybe it's just a phase? 

Very true. Even Tal played the exchange variation against Korchnoi once in an attempt to get a draw ( Korchnoi had a great record against Tal ) and Tal still lost !  

My own experience is that only lower rated players play the exchange against me , higher rated players never do . 

Some years ago my wife was playing against the great Kasparov in an exhibition in Lisbon and she is also a " frenchie " and she hates the exchange variation and suggested she might play 1...e5 should Kasparov play 1 e4 . I assured her that the great Kasparov would NOT play the exchange variation and then he did !  LOL He also has a win in the exchange against no less than Korchnoi !  

Personally, I wold love to play against the exchange all the time... defence against the winawer is quite depressing (but fortunately enough 3...Nf6 is very playable, yet).

As a rule, if I know that my opponent finds some variation extremely frustrating, that's the one I want to play.

"Having preferences means having weaknesses." -Carlsen

hmm...I love playing against the Winawer...must be a preference thing (is 3..Bb4 worse than 3...Nf6?)

hmmm...maybe I should look at some exchange games by the greats....get a feel for what the strategies are in this variation.

that's very true....even in a so-called drawish opening a good player can complicate things and make interesting play.even in the "drawish" Petroff defense I've seen some very dynamic games (Ivanchuck vs Kramnik was one of them).

me not liking this exhchange variation is probably just a preference thing

Neither better, nor worse. It's probably a matter of personal taste, but there are very few variations in the Winawer I feel OK as black (and certainly not the poisoned pawn). Probably only the Portisch and Eingorn variations are good, but both are somewhat passive.

On the classical, 4.Bg5 is not dangerous (the Burn is a completely satisfactory solution) while 4.e5 which is the acid test is certainly more pleasant to play as black than those measly Winawers.

I prefer the winawer myself but my wife prefers the classical . I do sometimes play the classical as well but probably play the winawer as black in 80% of my french games after 3 Nc3 . What do you think of the armenian variation pfren ?  

Stronger players usually prefer dynamic play,or at least,to create some imbalances in the postion so that the game doesn't become boring. Weaker players don't get this,so they just exchange at the first chance they get.

In my experience the French Exchange is played by aggressive attacking players who just want to get some open lines and avoid the prepared lines of Black's French. Often the French is played by positional players who like semiclosed games and who don't like those open lines, even when they have equality.