French Vs Sicilian

Talk to @ThrillerFan.  I'd barely pass for Davout.

Looking at the Board 3 Sicilian game:

- 7. f3 looks slow, the immediate Qd2 would be better, since black has committed to castling short (though castling long in reply was correct)

- You flat missed 10. Nxc6! which pins the d-pawn and wins the battle for the center after 11. e5.  I know 10. exd5 is a book move, but it's clearly inferior.

- Instead of taking the pawn, which surrenders the initiative, 13. Bd4! maintains a healthy advantage by blockading the d-pawn and challenging the g7 bishop on the long diagonal.  If black kicks the bishop, i.e. 13. Bd4 e5, then 14. Bc5! gains tempo on the f1 rook and allows the queen to capture d5 with better piece activity for both attack and defense.

- 35. h5?! was no good, you're losing a pawn anyways, don't let him create a passed pawn so easily.  Leave the pawn there, capturing it will deactivate his queen for a turn.

Alright, looks like the rest of Team French is going to have to kick in, now that we're down a point.  Uncharted territory for us, we led the last challenge from wire-to-wire.

Qd2 then Ng5

A more positional line seriously???

15. Bd4 seems like an obvious improvement over the game line, as well.

Also the main board is updated now that the Board 3 match is over.

@chamo2074 - Sometimes blockading the pawn is better than taking it, and this is one of those instances.  Piece activity is easily worth a whole pawn, and your opponent had more than enough space to avoid forced simplifications which might have made the pawn deficit more consequential.

That's the issue with the Sicilian, and the Dragon especially - there is simply so much theory, and much of it gets very exotic.

I haven't finished my games yet

The Dragon is more fun anyway.

Idk about the sicilian or the french, when I play the dragon sicilian  they always go for the yugoslav attack and their pawns reach me before mine. People say that the dragon sicilian is aggresive but I don't see how it is.  And then my position falls apart. I know that the najdorf stops the pieces from going to b6 but they rarely do when you don't play the najdorf. Idk, I'm running out of ideas on which opening to play.

If someone shows me how  the light squared bishop can get into the game I'll be convinced that the french is better. Or if someone shows me how to deal with the yugoslav attack. Then I'll go with sicilian.

@little_guinea_pig - I don't think I was being harsh.  @chamo2074 is a fine player, I was at his level not long ago.  The thing is, I was at that level for a very long time, and I could have used a little help finding these small improvements back then.

Once you get to the mid-amateur level, further improvement requires a better understanding of positional subtleties, and a better sense of the balance between material and activity.  I had to get out of my comfort zone in order to acquire these skills.

@freerobuxman - Nimzowitsch, in his book My System, Chapter 9 (Pawn Chains) illustrates how to liberate the queenside pieces in the French Advanced Variation.  It does take a while to accomplish, but it does happen by force.

If white doesn't play the Advanced Variation (3. e5), you can just play the Rubinstein (3. ..dxe4) and the light square bishop never becomes an issue in the first place.

I don't find the pawn push very useful, unless you can convince me 

@ChesswithNickolay - I don't have anything against the Najdorf, it's a fine option.  It's just that the Dragon is sharper, and sharp games are better for improving tactical skills, and generally more fun for tactical players to use.  Most Sicilian players like tactical games.  That's why I said the Dragon is "more fun" and not "better".

higher win rate for grandmasters, how about 1200s

But we do play for fun.

But it's opposite side castling

I used explorer when you played d5 otherwise I knew all of this

Hmm