The French Defense

The French is not quiet. Trust me, it was my primary defense to e4 for 29 years, and is still my secondary defense.

The French is most in line with the Sicilian. The Caro-Kann and 1...e5 are quieter options.

Don't believe it? Here is proof! I have played this line in Correspondence Chess with Black as least half a dozen times in Correspondence:

Black can play ...exf5 or ...Qh6+ here. It is a draw with best play. There is nothing quiet about this. Same can be said about the following, which I have played multiple times over the board from BOTH sides:

And here, both 11...Rc8 and 11...f6 are playable, whereas I had an opponent play 11...Be7? which I elaborate in detail why it is bad in the 2020 article below:

https://charlottechesscenter.blogspot.com/2020/02/the-french-connection-volume-31.html?m=1

Again, the French is ANYTHING BUT quiet!

Its probably on average the most quiet out of the big 4 defenses to e4. That does not mean that the french never get sharp or tactical. There are many ways to play all of the big 4 defenses.

laughs in caro kahn.even most lines in the ruy lopez for black have him taking his sweet time to try to equalize. There is nothing quiet about most french lines. Neither the classical or the winawer are passive and neither are most replies to the advanced variation. the exchange is only as passive as black allows it to be unless white insists on maintaining symmetry forever. Of the main french lines, only those stemming from the rubinstein are remotely passive an even then, they are ways to spice up the game like gxf6

Obviously the Winawer is very sharp, and Paulsen often gets interesting with exposed kings. But what's really thematic about the french, for me, is how difficult it is to deviate from theory in a way that's impactful. The pawn structure plays in the same way most times. In this sense the opening is boring, And the french exchange is very boring, advanced is relatively boring too. A good opening can always get spicy, french gets you half the way there.

No, it isn't.

One can call "quiet" the Rubinstein/ Fort Knox variations, and probably the ...exd5 Tarrasch lines as well, but the rest is mostly sharp stuff.

Again, incorrect!

The Caro-Kann would be the "quietest" of the big 4 overall, though 1...e5 owns the quietest line, the Berlin.

Even the Open Tarrasch is full of tactics. Not all tactics involve queen sacrifices or knights forking 4 pieces at once (KQRR). The game below is full of tactics. Even the ...f4 push in the endgame was only possible for tactical reasons once the White King went to the e-file. 49...Rg6+ I calculated as a loss by 1 move for the tactical reason of White ignores the g-pawn and wins with 50.Rxg6 hxg6 51.Kf4+-.

What defence out of the big 4 would you claim to be the most quiet if not the french?

For me it is a close call between the Caro and the french. But maybe I used the wrong word. Maybe a better word would be passive or defensive instead of quiet. Some variations can become spicy, but its almost always white going for Blacks king and not the other way around.