French Players, Unite!

Any French players here? Care to discuss the opening, or share some of your games?

*thumbs up*

Personal preference. Caro is solid but a bit toward the drawish side. I appreciate French's more imbalanced nature.

I love the french! There are so many different kinds of imbalances that can arise from the various variations; space vs structure, bishops vs knights, over-extension vs central undermining - a beautiful opening that I will always play.

i throughly enjoy the french!

caro-kan't

I've been playing it for decades. It's the opening I turn to when I can't afford to play for a draw.

Here's a group

http://www.chess.com/groups/home/french-defense

Not a French player, but I have respect for the opening as a 1e4 player as White.  It is definitely more dangerous than it looks.

By the way, Caro-kann is only good, if you are playing for a draw...

Botvinnik said that the French is better than the caro-kann.

so unrelated its not even funny

I play the French when I'm looking for a win and not a learning experience

(Then white plays the exchange variation and I draw)

Well I laughed

One approach to avoiding the dreaded "draw" of the exchange variation is to castle opposite of your opponent--if he castles kingside, you castle queenside (and vice versa).

There's, of course, risks involved, so you're probably best going into it by first studying similar positions.. but I've won a lot of games as black in the exchange by doing this.

Sometimes it becomes a race from both sides to see who can obliterate the other's kingside first.

Sometimes black ends up on the losing end of the battle, but usually it's due to a mistake or blunder. Often black comes out the victor. In any case, you can see this is one way to make the game exciting and not drawish at all in the exchange variation. :D

*thumbs up*

I never play the French as Black, but maybe I should. I really like playing against it as White, not because it's easy, but because the games are interesting.

You might be surprised by how tactical the French often gets, and I'm not just talking about the Winawer. I have a game going on right now where white tried start an attack on my kingside and I responded by sacrificing my Bishop.

I love playing against the french