A reason not to play the French

While some lines of the french are totally positional there are some very tactical lines of the french. You have to be very brave to be able to play f6 in many lines.

Originally posted by doodinthemood
You are forgiven. My positional play is fine. I win more positional matches than tactical matches, but tactics are what make chess fun.

I also thought of something to demonstrate that this is true for most chess players, and not just me:
Chess puzzles. Find a chess puzzle that is "white to play and get better control of the dark squares over the ne ut they're all tactical, because that's what makes chess fun for the majority of people.

they do exist in non-tactical books.

Some ways to make the White side of the French Defense fun:

1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 ed ed 4 c4

1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 c4 de 4 Nc3

1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 Be3 de 4 f3

One more, a little different:

1. e4 e6 2.Nf3 d5 3.e5 c5 4.b4

Originally posted by doodinthemood
You are forgiven. My positional play is fine. I win more positional matches than tactical matches, but tactics are what make chess fun.

I also thought of something to demonstrate that this is true for most chess players, and not just me:
Chess puzzles. Find a chess puzzle that is "white to play and get better control of the dark squares over the ne ut they're all tactical, because that's what makes chess fun for the majority of people.

Actually they do exist. Try Chess Exam for example. The reason they are not as numerous is because without tactics positional play is meaningless and positional moves are often more subjective and difficult to come up with. For strong players, positional play can be just as interesting as tactics but the market is smaller.

Originally posted by Fat Lady
One more, a little different:

1. e4 e6 2.Nf3 d5 3.e5 c5 4.b4

I've had some incredible quick wins with line in OTB games and blitz games.

I made a ref to Marshall's 'gold coins' game. See

http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/marshall.html

A wonderful article about it from Edward Winter.

Originally posted by Fat Lady
One more, a little different:

1. e4 e6 2.Nf3 d5 3.e5 c5 4.b4

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.c4

actually, nvm, someone already mentioned it

Originally posted by doodinthemood
You've clearly never tried "hungry hungry hippos"

Interestingly in this great game (with parallels to chess) I chose to play tactically against much inferior players (read younger brother) which included bashing the lever as fast as possible as my opponent would try the same and inevitably tire quicker than me. Against equal opponents I would aim for a subtle positional edge by kneeling hard on the carpet just next to the game and 'tipping' the balance of the game slightly in my favour.
🙂

Who can say if hungry hippos is better than chess? That question will always remain.
As for the French being boring: A lot of the problem is WHITE playing the weedy advance variation (3.e5) , you've just tipped the game towards boring. WHITE can even do worse:- 3.ed, the laughable exchange variation. ha ha ha, YOU have just made the game even more boring. After 3.Nc3 or 3.Nd2 there are many options (for both players) from the outrageously explosive to the dull (just like any other opening).

I didn't expect people to still be discussing this. The title doesn't make sense now that the thread it was a reference to has gone away. (It was called 'A reason to play the French'. I would note that it's fallen into obscurity, whereas my counter-polemic stands tall 😉 )

I play the duhm gambit now:
1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. c4!!!!!!!
And have had mixed success with it, but quite a lot of fun.