Korchnoi and the French Defence

I have always considered Korchnoi a connoisseur of the French Defence, and in the 1974 match with Karpov played 1e4 9 times and the French Defence appeared 7 times!

And then the following matches in 1978 and 1981, Karpov played 1 e4 20 times  and the French Defence only appeared 2 times.

That seems odd to me ... not to have played your bread and butter opening more?

The French has a bad reputation at the GM level. I haven't seen Korchnoi's games though.

Any opening that is not the Sicilian or e5 has a bad reputation 

Also many people don’t play their main opening. Fischer c4, Anand d4, Kasparov dragon, etc

c6 is ok.

g6 is ok for must win.

e6 is just dumb... according to the top level.

Tell that to everyone who played it. Carlsen used it against Giri, Caruana used it in the Speed chess championship among other events, Nepo used it in Candidates, Radjabov created the best game he ever played with the French, 

I mean sure, in one off games, they'll play almost anything.

In speed chess they only play "anything."

Nepo played the French twice in the Candidates 

Scoring 0.5 out of 2, but ok, you're right, he's willing to try it twice.

What?! The Sicilian is barely surviving at the elite super gm level, it's only used when black really wants to win. The Caro still does pretty well as far as I know, but a bit too timid.  

The French is just a form of mental illness.  

What do you mean the Sicilian is barely surviving at the GM level? It is the most popular opening. MVL, Nepo, Giri, Carlsen (who I think has never lost a game since 2012 in the Sicilian), Fabi, Radjabov, etc. 

Yeah, I mean... if I were playing OTB and a peer played the French against me, I wouldn't think I had any good advantage. It's the same as 1...e5 or 1...c5 to me.

But at the top... not so much.

Carlsen is always playing for a win as black though. It is not considered as solid as e5. But fine I agree with your point. 

7, wasn't it? Also, the only interesting games were the Sicilian games. Caruana was only fighting with white and Carlsen was only fighting with black. 

Korchnoi was truly the master of French Defense, but at the top level today, it is indeed a rare guest. I've checked my Chessbase database just out of curiosity, If you sort games by highest black players' elo you will very rarely encounter games with 2..e6, like extremely rarely. The first two gaems that did show up were some meaningless online bullet games.

Sorry 1..e6

Carlsen knew he should win so he got aggressive and played the Sicilian. Caruana kept playing the Petrov on the other hand. If Carlsen had been playing a player better than him, eg. a prime Kasparov (arguable by some), he would likely have played e5.