French exchange opening

Hello all,

I've been playing French for years now and am almost comfortable with most aspects of the opening ... The only time I'm almost certainly get into trouble is after

1.) e4 e6
2.) d4 d5
3.) exd5 ...

Every time I feel navigating into a flat draw position (against much weaker opponents) and am completely be taken apart by equal and better players ...

Does anyone know what black can play for after the exchange (in general terms) ???

Thanks
Boris

I play the french a lot and I love when people play the exchange because it's basically equality at move 3!

in general I play Bd6, Ne7, and 0-0 (you can break Bg5 pins with f6 this way).

It's not actually that easy, but I would venture a guess that you're just not comforatble enough with open games in general. Start playing some scotch blitz games and you'll have fewer problems in short order.

I agree. I always play the French to e4 and Zebano is right: you have equalised by move 3 in the Exchange and the opening has done its job. Go for an expansive game after this- bishops pinning either knight etc: they don't expect it from players of the French!

Originally posted by zebano
I play the french a lot and I love when people play the exchange because it's basically equality at move 3!

in general I play Bd6, Ne7, and 0-0 (you can break Bg5 pins with f6 this way).

It's not actually that easy, but I would venture a guess that you're just not comforatble enough with open games in general. Start playing some scotch blitz games and you'll have fewer problems in short order.

I agree it is bloody drawish, but here is one of my best wins with it (and one of my first games on this site).

Game 1525254

3...Qxd5 is playable.

I only play the exchange veriation vs the French. It's the only opening I'm comfortable with as far as far as the French is concerned. It does give equality to black early but it gives very easy positional to play instead of all the complications and complicated positions. The lower rated players who use the French may not play the exchange the right way, so you can usually avoid a draw vs them. Against higher rated players, it's usually good to draw them, and is fairly easy to do.

It's much easier than trying to attack the French 😛.

Originally posted by Redmike
3...Qxd5 is playable.

Game 1566417
Game 1558231

...Qxd5 is a bit poor considering you might end up in a duff setup of the Scandinavian (when White plays Nc3) with ...e6 blocking out the bad 'French' bishop.

I really know little about what openings are called and such.... but I would never exchange if I were white, I'd always advance into enemy territory.... is this a bad move?

Originally posted by ChessJester
I really know little about what openings are called and such.... but I would never exchange if I were white, I'd always advance into enemy territory.... is this a bad move?

Originally posted by zebano
In this case, that is practically main line.

after
1.e4 e6
2. d4 d5

White has 3 common responses
3. e5 - the most common

3. Nd2 - The Tarrasch, Kasparov favored this

3. Nc3 - often going into a winawer (3 ... Bb4), but black can choose some more classical lines instead. Bobby Fischer favoroued this line. Secondhand, I have heard that he said " ...[text shortened]... to the extent of: "I may yet be forced to admit that the winawer is sound, but I doubt it."

Originally posted by Redmike
I don't think 3.e5 is anything like the most common.

I'd say 3.Nc3 was most common, by a long way.

Originally posted by zebano
I think thats true at the higher levels of play, but in my experience (club play) I almost always see e5.