French Defense

Originally posted by kingshill
I was surprised to find that currently the third most popular move in the French other than the Winawer (Bb4) and Classical (Nf6) is h6. This has scored quite well recently but here is a game that my son played yesterday in a IM tournament in Germany where he manages to take this variation down. Haven't had time to analyse it yet but this was not part of ...[text shortened]... 7. Kh1 Bd8 28. Rg1+ Kf8 29. Rh8+ Ke7 30. Bxf6+
Rxf6 31. Rg7+ 0-1

[/pgn]

have played it quite a lot myself. quite a few lovely wins.
for white in my opinion..
4. ed safe slight edge
4.a3!? after which it is quite risky for black to play anything other than 4.... de

Originally posted by kingshill
I was surprised to find that currently the third most popular move in the French other than the Winawer (Bb4) and Classical (Nf6) is h6. This has scored quite well recently but here is a game that my son played yesterday in a IM tournament in Germany where he manages to take this variation down. Haven't had time to analyse it yet but this was not part of ...[text shortened]... 7. Kh1 Bd8 28. Rg1+ Kf8 29. Rh8+ Ke7 30. Bxf6+
Rxf6 31. Rg7+ 0-1

[/pgn]

in this game, after the thematic Nb4, it is pathetic not to take on d3 before white moves his bishop

Originally posted by queenabber
have played it quite a lot myself. quite a few lovely wins.
for white in my opinion..
4. ed safe slight edge
4.a3!? after which it is quite risky for black to play anything other than 4.... de

What kind of notation is ed and de? What does it mean?

pawn on e square captures on d square
pawn on d square captures on e square

capice?

Originally posted by RJHinds
What kind of notation is ed and de? What does it mean?

😞

Originally posted by RJHinds
What kind of notation is ed and de? What does it mean?

Ed and Dee, the names of the players. 😕

Originally posted by wolfgang59
😞

Yup

Originally posted by Wilfriedva
pawn on e square captures on d square
pawn on d square captures on e square

capice?

Okay. I normally see those as exd? or dxe? with the ? replaced with the number for the square, like exd4. I was not aware of the shorthand notation. I am still getting used to this algebraic notation from my earlier days of always using descriptive notation.

Whats the problem with 1.e4 e6 2.d4 c5 - I like this move order..

Originally posted by plopzilla
Whats the problem with 1.e4 e6 2.d4 c5 - I like this move order..

If you use that move order then you are playing the Sicilian defense and not the French.

White can even transpose in to a much better Old Benoni by playing 3. d4-d5. This gives him a small edge.

Originally posted by plopzilla
Whats the problem with 1.e4 e6 2.d4 c5 - I like this move order..

If you're going to play the Sicilian, play the Sicilian. 😉 🙂

Originally posted by kingshill
If you use that move order then you are playing the Sicilian defense and not the French.

White can even transpose in to a much better Old Benoni by playing 3. d4-d5. This gives him a small edge.

If I play old benoni otb against 1.d4 so i'm wondering if I can use this to get similar positions..

After 1.e4 e6 2.d4 c5 3.d5 exd5 4.exd5 d6 it must be usable in otb chess up to 200 level and possibly some practical value in white may not have prepared for it.

Originally posted by plopzilla
If I play old benoni otb against 1.d4 so i'm wondering if I can use this to get similar positions..

After 1.e4 e6 2.d4 c5 3.d5 exd5 4.exd5 d6 it must be usable in otb chess up to 200 level and possibly some practical value in white may not have prepared for it.

Just looked at my TWIC database with games from the last year. 1...c5 is only played 1800 times out of 130000 but it is playable. It's funny that the response that scores the best for white is transpose back into the English with 2.c4. Black scores qquite well against the theoretical 2.d5. Probably because black is in book and white is not.

Virtually anything is playable at sub master level if you know it well enough. I know a number of people who play the North Sea Defense and that is just about as unsound as they come.

Originally posted by RJHinds
Okay. I normally see those as exd? or dxe? with the ? replaced with the number for the square, like exd4. I was not aware of the shorthand notation. I am still getting used to this algebraic notation from my earlier days of always using descriptive notation.

it's not a standard form of notation,I guess the poster felt extremely lazy