Awesome thanks Yangyang! What rating range do you recommend the French to?
The Mighty French: Advanced Variation (With a little of the Burn's and the McCutcheon)
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Nov 24, 2022
0
#4
TheTreadmill--you can play the French to any rating, IM, GM. It is solid.
'The French Defence. In my younger years I used to consider it at best a second-rate opening, and I once even lost a bet with one of my friends, and as a result had to play 1... e6 in all my games with Black in a Super-GM tournament. Fortunately my friend was greedy, and took money instead. I believe that both 1...c5 and 1...e5! are better choices, but since I desperately wanted to win this game (I was trailing the leaders Kramnik and Shirov by 1 point at this stage) I decided to try something new.' - Carlsen 2010
Nov 25, 2022
0
#6
pfren wrote:
tygxc wrote:
'The French Defence. In my younger years I used to consider it at best a second-rate opening, and I once even lost a bet with one of my friends, and as a result had to play 1... e6 in all my games with Black in a Super-GM tournament. Fortunately my friend was greedy, and took money instead. I believe that both 1...c5 and 1...e5! are better choices, but since I desperately wanted to win this game (I was trailing the leaders Kramnik and Shirov by 1 point at this stage) I decided to try something new.' - Carlsen 2010
...and since 2010, Carlsen has played the French in 5 LTC games, and countless rapid and blitz ones.
He will cherry pick one quote or one game and try to run with it like it is gospel. Does it all the time. Reality states otherwise!
French defense has pretty much become extinct at top level long time control otb chess.
@9
Only 1 long time control, the other 2 are fast time controls.
In rapid and blitz and at low levels any opening goes.
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=2229054
Welcome to Basic Openings Introduction!
(Children formatted and friendly. Explains common plays.)
Credits: McKay Chess Library MODERN CHESS OPENINGS by Nick de Firmian
What is the French?
The French is a black opening and has many tactics in it. It is very closed, but can be open. White starts with 1. e4. Black responds with 1. ... e6:
Author's experience:
The French is good for intermediate tactic understander. 1200-1799. It could be used for 1800-2099, but any USCF rating that is higher might be a bit harder. I would not talk about this variation more, so I will include this here:
Or this:
Some cool quotes!
Thanks to @tygxc
'The French Defence. In my younger years I used to consider it at best a second-rate opening, and I once even lost a bet with one of my friends, and as a result had to play 1... e6 in all my games with Black in a Super-GM tournament. Fortunately my friend was greedy, and took money instead. I believe that both 1...c5 and 1...e5! are better choices, but since I desperately wanted to win this game (I was trailing the leaders Kramnik and Shirov by 1 point at this stage) I decided to try something new.' - Carlsen 2010