How should I use my queen in french defense?

I am quite a beginner and not too familiar with openings. I often get to this situation (maybe it is the french defense) and wonder, what to do with my queen. I saw some videos, where they moved it to b6 now. But whenever I have my queen on this side of the board, I feel it is kind of lost and can´t help me, when my oponent attacks on my kings side. 

I know, that there is no general answer to this question. But is it a good idea to move the queen now to my queens side? What would be a better place for the queen?

Well theres a few things to talk about here. In the French, very basically black is looking to dissolve white centre and counterattack queenside before whites kingside attack works. Black is looking to usually cause some stuctural weakness for white while trading off all of whites attacking pieces OR go for the full nine yards and checkmate the white king. This may be why you feel the Queen is lost on the queenside. Hiwever she is absolutely needed there. Remember, you're looking to exchange on d4 in such a way as whits centre dissolves so the Queen on b6 helps do that. She also can sometimes tie whites dark-squared bishop to defending b2 which means it can't defend d4 as effectively. Now taking on b2 is risky as white will get a lot of time to further his attack while you retreat her. This is what makes the French interesting and complex whit various 2600-2700 GMs battling out the various merits for white and black.

Homestly, i would consider playing something different at your rating. Perhaps ...e5 is more beneficial at your level. However, if you really want to play the French check out the games of Viktor Korchnoi and Evegny Bareev. I'm sure other contributors can think of other regular French players too.

In the advance variation you actually can play Qb6, then if white does not defend correctly you either pick up d4 or b2 if you dare. Mind that you usually have to play Bd7, otherwise Bd3-b5+ could cost you the queen if it is on d4. The line you picked is actually not well known. Normal is c3. I think Qb6 is playable, but there's certainly nothing wrong with cxd either. Black undermines the e5 pawn or he can pick up the pair of bishops.

Yeah b6 is the natural square in most cases, it can sit at d8 for a while in some lines. The basic idea of the french is to fight for the dark center squares d4 and e5.

That's why you see moves like c5, Nc6, Qb6 and ideas like Ne7/Nh6 followed by Nf5, all attacking d4. And also moves like f6, attacking e5.

White will get an attack on the kingside, so I can understand your concerns. We need to pressure the dark squares though, with pawns on d4 and e5 white has a nice space advantage, takes away our natural f6 square for the knight and makes our c8 bishop look silly. It's a bit of a counterattacking opening, you have to cause some problems for white or else you're just miserable.

Some general advice:

- watch out for bishop sacrifices on h7, they are very common (but not always good) in general the light squared bishop op d3 is a very good attacker

- f5 is a useful defensive resource (like an emergency break), to block that d3 bishop or gain control of f6 if he takes ep

- if we have to weaken our kingside h6 is usually better than g6. problem with g6 is that h4-h5 is very fast.

- another useful plan is to exchange light squared bishops on a6. some plan like a6-b5-a5-b4-Ba6 is pretty common. Those pawns gain space on the queenside and fight for dark scuares (c3). the bishop on c8 is the main problem piece, so if we can exchange it for that beast on d3 we are usually pretty happy.

Ofcourse it all depends on the specific position, it's just some general ideas.

Thanks for all the hints! Looks like I need to practice the french a little more. But most sounds reasonable even to a beginner like me.