@TheChessAnalyst:
I see your point. Basically, opening study is the only kind of Chess study that you enjoy, so in that case I'd agree that it will be probably be better for your game than doing no study at all. I just wanted to make sure you weren't under any illusions that it's the best way to improve.
Have fun studying the French! (I'll practice my Bird's opening a bit in case I bump into you in Live 
)
In a different thread Pfren wrote:
Control as much of the center as you can, develop your minor pieces fast, castle fast, take care not dropping pawns and pieces, avoid uneccessary pawn moves and queen excursions.
Another guy in this thread said play only e4, e5 until elo 2000 - So, the last three weeks I played only e4, e5 and practiced nothing but tactics and played games from a Kasperov book I found -
Result +112 Elo points -
Okay maybe I am a becoming a beleiver....
French defence is very strong and reliable against 1.e4. 1...- c5 might put you in trouble very quickly if you don't know the theory... French defence is actually the subject of my study now and it's not dull at all as White has to play right and very dynamic to stay in the game. Go for it!
french if you prefer d4. it shows that you like more solid openings with more "boring" and positional play. french has the strength, and solidness, while sicilian has the aggressivness and tactics, so i recommend french. but like the tronmowsky its an agressive opening with quick play.
Sicilian is better than french since your opponent can play advanced variation if they are skilled or they studied that position. advanced can give white good winning chances
Sicilian is better than french since your opponent can play advanced variation if they are skilled or they studied that position. advanced can give white good winning chances
That's ridiculous. The Advance Variation isn't the killer of the French. You come off sounding like someone who doesn't know how to play against the Advance.
Has TheChessAnalyst been here since 2015?
Don't they like it in the valley?
You certainly have more to study if you pick any of the major Sicilians.
You can also use the same variation (Rubinstein) against 3.Nc3 and 3.Nd2. Grandmaster Georg Meier plays it almost exclusively with great results (mainly because of his excellent positional technique, and less because of the opening, mind you).
@pfren sorry for bumping this thread, but if you recommended the Rubinstein then how would you say black should play for a win against 7.c3 ? It seems that this line leads to an unpleasant endgame for black where white plays for 2 results
You certainly have more to study if you pick any of the major Sicilians.
You can also use the same variation (Rubinstein) against 3.Nc3 and 3.Nd2. Grandmaster Georg Meier plays it almost exclusively with great results (mainly because of his excellent positional technique, and less because of the opening, mind you).
@pfren sorry for bumping this thread, but if you recommended the Rubinstein then how would you say black should play for a win against 7.c3 ? It seems that this line leads to an unpleasant endgame for black where white plays for 2 results
What is so unpleasant in this fairly typical 3:2 majority endgame?
If this was automatically better for white, then a lot of openings (Sicilian included) would be unplayable.
It's just a matter of knowing how to handle this type of endgame as Black, and this has nothing to do with the opening itself.
You certainly have more to study if you pick any of the major Sicilians.
You can also use the same variation (Rubinstein) against 3.Nc3 and 3.Nd2. Grandmaster Georg Meier plays it almost exclusively with great results (mainly because of his excellent positional technique, and less because of the opening, mind you).
@pfren sorry for bumping this thread, but if you recommended the Rubinstein then how would you say black should play for a win against 7.c3 ? It seems that this line leads to an unpleasant endgame for black where white plays for 2 results
What is so unpleasant in this fairly typical 3:2 majority endgame?
If this was automatically better for white, then a lot of openings (Sicilian included) would be unplayable.
It's just a matter of knowing how to handle this type of endgame as Black, and this has nothing to do with the opening itself.
What are blacks plans in this type of endgame? I haven't found any GM games in this specific line where black won, so I'm not sure what to use as model games, do you have any good examples of the correct black strategy in action?
One advantage of the French is that the pawn structures tend to be similar between variations.
The lazy reason for learning the Rubinstein French is to get by with a minimum of preparation. A better reason is to have a good surprise weapon for when you are happy with a draw. But to get that it is not enough to know the opening well. You have to be an excellent endgame player as well. The drawbacks are huge. It makes you easy to prepare against, the Rubinstein gives you few winning chances if White is not trying to win, your chess education remains narrow ... and then there is the difficult variation with c3, simply supporting d4 and opening a route to a4 for the Queen, as popularised by Kasparov.
In chess, laziness is not the route to success.
French or Sicilian? They give the game a different character, so may suit different temperaments. In either case you have to know how to play chess, as well as learning the theory (and WHY it is theory). I think most top players could handle either opening well, and on either side ... at least they could do that in their encounters with lesser players. Of course against other super-GMs they play what they think gives them the best chance of the result they are after.
I'm not using it as an excuse for laziness, the Rubinstein has a lot of theory since there are many attempts by white to gain an advantage. I just like the simplified positions that result and want to get better in the endgame
French
The lazy reason for learning the Rubinstein French is to get by with a minimum of preparation. A better reason is to have a good surprise weapon for when you are happy with a draw. But to get that it is not enough to know the opening well. You have to be an excellent endgame player as well. The drawbacks are huge. It makes you easy to prepare against, the Rubinstein gives you few winning chances if White is not trying to win, your chess education remains narrow ... and then there is the difficult variation with c3, simply supporting d4 and opening a route to a4 for the Queen, as popularised by Kasparov.
In chess, laziness is not the route to success.
French or Sicilian? They give the game a different character, so may suit different temperaments. In either case you have to know how to play chess, as well as learning the theory (and WHY it is theory). I think most top players could handle either opening well, and on either side ... at least they could do that in their encounters with lesser players. Of course against other super-GMs they play what they think gives them the best chance of the result they are after.
I don't even think that a "minimum of preparation" is an attraction of the Rubinstein, because even though it collapses the Tarrasch and Classical variations into one, white's choices are rather wide. I don't find the Rubinstein to be a particularly practical opening choice given this and the factors you mentioned but there are others who disagree I am sure.
<snip> you are faced with struggling for equality deep into the game and small mistakes can lead to losing games <snip>
Exactly. That is why I gave up on it. Why do all that work, just to struggle to get a draw?
Well you have to struggle to get a draw anyway if white plays well 
I'd rather play a "boring" draw knowing I'm playing near-optimal moves than win as black knowing both sides made serious errors. Of course currently I'm nowhere near the level of playing optimally in any opening, but I feel that with hard work it can be possible to play the Rubinstein at a very high level, especially as I've seen IMs that don't really have anything prepared against the opening.
The Flexable French - I have only done a pre-curser of the book but I like what I have seen so far!
It has diagrams of plans, where and how you eventually want your peices set up - not a bunch of move orders to get there (although there are move variations as well)
I love the plan diagrams - Sam Collins does this alot and it really helps me see the overall picture.
I think I will enjoy this book -