Your experience with the French Defense as black

I always was searching for a defense against 1.e4.

I went from 1...e5 (like most beginners) to the Scandinavian (with ...Qa5, later ...Qd8), different Sicilian systems, a little bit the French, I went back to 1.e4, I gave a try with the Caro-Kann, and now I am playing the French.

And I like it!

With 1...e5 I had problems with the different gambits, and I never really understood well all the moves you should now in the Italian game, for example -and how can you memorize things that you cannot understand? You can't.

I gave a try with the Scandi, and it is probably an opening that you can play if you are well prepared. It is solid, but you have to be ready to play without the bishop pair and therefore do a lot to keep the position rather close. But I had the impression that people who didn't study the Scandi with white were able to reach very good middlegames, and I had to give up this opening.

The Caro- Kann is really not tending towards for confrontation (okay, you can say the same about the French ), and when I realized this I gave it up before investing too much time.

The French is somehow different from all the defenses that I tried yet.  It is not the kind of opening that you should try without knowing some basic ideas, as white have a lot of ways to sac and attack your king. However, as I am following a repertoire (Master the French Defense, by NM Brying Tillis, endorsed by GM Lenderman, I have the impression that the lines are straightforward, at least most of them. The ideas are often simple, and with the time and although I got also crushed in this opening a couple of times, I have the feeling that most opponents don't have much experience with it. It happens from time to time that you come out of the opening with a whole healthy pawn or even more.

Did you try already the French, and what do you think about it?

Or do you feel comfortable playing against the French? (I am a 1.d4 player, so I don't face it usually).

I played the French for a good while and liked it for the most part. I felt that once we reached the advance variation pushing the c pawn gave black the tempo. Recently though I feel that my queen side attack is getting bogged down most likely because I need to hit the books again. One of the reasons I've started moving away from the French is because I think the exchange variations lead to mostly pretty boring games. my rating isn't great. so take this all cum grano salis. but that's my take on the French. Great defense if you know what you're doing and white doesn't play an exchange variation.

This is one line from my repertoire. As the author says, "Black has many natural moves and can fight back on the kingside with ...h5."

This encourage me a lot! Did you learn it with a specific book? Or just with databases?

I switched to the French earlier this year after many years of playing the Sicilian, and I love it. I've never gotten a bad position out of the opening and the positions are fun to play.

I haven't memorized any lines, but have instead focused on how to play the principal pawn structures. "Pawn Structure Chess" by Soltis and "Chess Structures: A Grandmaster Guide" by Flores have good material on this, as does an out-of-print book, "Mastering the French Defense" by Neil McDonald. Uhlmann's "Winning with the French" also has a lot of insights, presented through well annotated complete games.

Exchange variation? Bring it on. White immediately solves a major strategic problem for Black, activating the light square B, and has a difficult time showing any advantage.

Best case scenario for black is exchange variation. Then, advanced variation is equally good for both sides. KIA and other such systems are an irritant for french players as it takes them out of their book. The critical test for french player would be classical and tarrasch. If your opponents are mainly playing exchange and advance, then you will be fine. But, if your opponents are playing other systems, you will need lot of prep and experience to deal with the positions.

Caro is similar to french. If you didn't like caro, maybe you won't like french. 

PS: I never played french. But, in lot of systems, you end up in french advance kind of positions and I have played those from black side.

Played the French for about 20 years. I was loosing against inferior players. Also since I am also a d4 player did not practice a lot of piece play. Changed to e5 before the summer (Marin's books) and is the best thing I have done this year.

Quite different experiences! Did you follow a certain book with the French? 

Not that I like the Caro. I bought a book on it and was going through it. The main reason not to try it was a certain line that I was not really convinced. Beside that I opted for a book from Chessable, you to be able to learn in a more systematic way. 

Did not follow any book. I was looking for a book when I decide to change. I could not find any book I liked. The Ntirlis one did not convice me for some reason that i do not remember. Since i was looking for a change i decided to go for e5. I do really like it, although there are a ton of lines to know there. I will see how it goes. Almost everybody plays the italian or the scotch, with a few spanish exchanges in between. 

play the french like viktor korchnoi and bobs yer teapot!

When I was playing 1...e5 I was surprised to see how many people were playing the bishop game. Probably I would like to play 1...e5 in a Daily game, you but in blitz or rapid I was struggling a lot. 

A book that I like a lot is the one written by Vitiogov. A lot of explanations  covering almost everything.

Which one? "The French Defense: A Complete Black Repertoire" or "French Defense Reloaded"?

Reloaded 

I bought it for two dollars some years ago

It is quite expensive now 

The KIA can be played regardless of whether or not you play the French.