When to play ...f6 in the French Defense??

master its my prob

mt speed is prob

can u try to view my games showcase blogs

I'm not paying for an invitation,                                                              madame.

i was talking to IM here instead of u sir

but yeah ur analysis re cool

Thank you guys for helping me.

@SaintGermain, Thank you for showing the games.In Tarassch lines ...f6 is a book moe as you showed. What about the Classical variation with 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Be7 5.e5 Nfd7 6. Bxe7 Qxe7. When should black play ...f6 here?

@abhi, I prefer the line with Nf6 against the Tarrasch rather than c5 because it leads to similar structures, while c5 leads to an IQP sometimes which is not to my taste. Nevertheless, the line you showed is interesting.

@twomove, thanks for the sugesstion. Are you meaning "Playing the French " by Nitrilis and Aagaard ? Isnt t a bit too theoretical for my level? Isnt it a Grandmaster Repertoire book by Quality Chess? Also Im looking for a book with illustrative games rather than a tree approach ( sort of like the Uhlmann book ).

sir mine system against tarrash does not allow IQP

Oh sorry abhi, I got confused with the exd5 line which gives the IQP. Guess Ill try this out.

MacCutcheon/Chigorin Variation - the Soviets including Alekhine and me were always playing with its minor pieces a lot. Not that I'm one of them. Anyways, if playing c5 then Qd5 makes sense. Active piece play.

its very sharp nd riskly system

maybe i missed some move order but u an find it oik

Playing the French isn't as complicated as the GM Rep series of  books, but not beginner level either. As quite a number of illustrative games amongst the theory.

@SaintGermain, Macutchon and Winawer are too sharp for me. I want to try the more solid and closed lines without the Bb4 move.

@twomove, okay then I will check it out. Thanks.

Okay so this is what I could deduce from examining some french games.

1. In the Tarrasch variation , ...f6 is a book move.

2. In positions where white has a bishop on d3 and has a queen which is able to go to Qh5, ...f6 will be a blunder unless the king has the oppurtunity to move to the d8 square when checked.

3. ...f6 is a mistake when we have a knight on d7 making the e6 pawn weak and subject to an attack by white with Nd4.

Anything else to add?

then why not play it?

Uhlmann was a famous French addict, look at any of his games.

When to play ...f6 or f5 in the French.  I am tired tonight.  Tomorrow I will post what  I hope will be helpful guidelines and rules of thumb of when to play ...f6, or ...f5 

I'm not an expert in the french or anything, but just play it when it seems logical (you need to break up white's center or else you have nothing to do) and it doesn't lose or drop something.

Here's a part-finished game I played against Stockfish - I played ...f6, which is a decent move, because there's no way else to activate my pieces.

https://www.chess.com/daily/game/159667532

Your opponent admitted to using Stockfish?

useful topic. thank you.