Chess Openings: Learn to Play the French Defense Against the Advance Variation!

Chess Openings: Learn to Play the French Defense Against the Advance Variation!

The French Defense is one of the best chess openings for black against e4. The French has good chess opening strategy, chess opening theory, and chess opening ideas. There are many lines and variations of the French Defense including the Exchange Variation, Normal Variation, Tarrasch Variation, Classical Variation, Marshall Variation, and Winawer Variation. However, in today's video we over what the French Defense player should do against the Advance Variation. With the Advance Variation, white tries to close the center up and take an advantage in space. However, with the black pieces, we can't simply sit around and allow white to steamroll us. Instead, we need to put immediate pressure on that central d4 pawn with c5, Nc6, and Qb6! The French Defense is one of the best chess openings for beginners because it shows how to play chess, how to improve at chess quickly. The strategy, moves, ideas, principles, tactics, theory, tricks, lines, variations, and traps of the French Defense make it a top tier chess opening for black against e4. The French Defense is a good chess opening for intermediate players as well because it shows how to win at chess fast. The French is a dangerous chess opening system for black that isn't going anywhere anytime soon. We see the French at all levels of play and in today's video we look to give you a chess opening guide on one of the best chess openings for black against e4. The French Defense can help you gain a higher chess rating and take higher rated players by surprise. It all comes down to preparation with knowing the chess opening theory, and understanding the middlegame positions that arise. The French Defense is one of the hardest chess openings to play against, and at one point was illegal in chess tournaments because it was "too strong of a chess opening for black!" This in itself shows that chess players have had a tough time knowing what to do with the French. The Advance Variation was an attempt to calm the waters but black still gains great attacking chances when attacking the center and queenside of the board. We hope you enjoy learning how to play the French Defense against the Advance Variation!

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[AaronRinggenberg]

playing against the Advance French are my favorite positions in all of Chess. there are so many cool queenside maneuvers and attacks and ways to pressure white's position. love seeing videos like this!

[TomBrooklyn]

Hi Giant. Great lecture! Dense with info and no wasted words! I'd be interested in seeing other variations of the French.

[achyuthankarthikeyan]

Your videos are brilliant, the fact that you have so few subscribers does sadden me. Hopefully, your channel will become famous soon.

[randyking]

Great video! I play the French, but have real trouble against the advance variation. This video was very helpful. Thanks again

[lionelbowhunter]

Thx a lot Solomon, a pure jewel! I love this defense, my main defense and i try to learn it since 3 years only. Your video about the advance ( my fav variation to play against) is clear and intuitive = bravo :) Your channel is way too underrated really. I wish you the best my friend. Greetings from France^^

[johnp]

thank you for this!
A video on how white can play the Tarrasch counter against the French defense would be greatly appreciated!
1. e4 e6
2. d4 d5
3. Nd2
thank you for considering!

[skyeruddell]

Another wonderful video, thank you! 👏

[donrobinson]

U r the best coach out there u don't dilly dally thanks Don

[Daniel-G-P]

Another fantastic video! Superb channel 👏

[jeremaj]

Love your videos they are very helpful can you maybe do video about smith morra gambit? 🙂

[stephenloft]

For someone who plays white on the French Advance, I picked up some valuable information. Regarding white a3 with Be2 at around 19:56 black starts his trek to a4 white castles and his rook goes to e1 to make way for Nf1. Instead of Re1, move f3 N to e1 with white going f4, Bg4 threatening f5. You can move that e1 N to c2 if you want to work on the queen side. White has N’s on d2 and c2, not f3 and g3. I think this gives white a better chance on the king side but would like your thoughts on this. Again, this is a great channel and look for your posts daily. The Urusoff gambit would be a fun topic to present here.

[quipsyishere]

Can you do a video on the polish defense? It's one of my favorite openings to take 1.d4 players out of theory

[timb]

Thanks for this! Scandinavian player here, mucking around 1200 or so at best. Down there in the eloslums, we see a lot of 1.e4 d5 2. e4. . . and we're out of 99 percent of the Scandinavian analysis. The most help we get is "it's like a French advance, but with your bishop outside of the pawn chain" (assuming Bf4, which I play on move 2) and they give nearly nothing else. But. . . like. . . what if we don't know the French Advance?? So, I'm digging in. And why wouldn't someone just analyze that line of the Scandi, for as often as it shows up at lower levels? It may just have to fall to us scrubs to put something together lol. This video will be a good start for me. It will be interesting to see which ideas translate almost exactly, and in what ways the Scandi player can produce other opportunities with the bishop out there. Thank you also for not saying "and here guys" every ten seconds. :D I really do like the pace and depth of your videos, but that nearly killed me in another video! lol. Cheers.

[billi]

Nice video. So I was the Bird Opening Sturm Gambit guy. I now have a lot more experience and I found a good way to defeat the d4 pawn push from black too. Now its my most popular opening and in like 300 games idk a single guy played correct against me with 1. f4 d5 2. c4 d4 3. e4 (not taking en passent or I play d4 by myself and I have full control over the center) c5 4. d3 e5 ... The eval bar is at -1.4 but its not that lost cause there arent moves which get white into truble soon.

[rickberglund]

3:20 I wish you elaborated on Qxb2 instead of instantly gxN. Exactly how does the queen get trapped, it appears Black would get compensation, but I’m just a C player.

[_xelua_]

a quick correction solomon .... in the line where you play Ne7 to go to F5, if white takes on c5 ... the theorytical move is not Qxc5.... rather you play Qc7 going for the central pawn because there is no real way for white to hold on to the pawn on c5 it will fall easily... and aslo by taking on c5 you are giving free tempo for white to expand in the queen side

[nikhilr]

Can you do one on the Goldman variation of the Caro Kann or as Naroditsky calls it, the 'Naro Kann'? It's an astoundingly powerful weapon for white against the Caro Kann and relatively unknown.
I don't think anyone's covered it apart from The Prophet himself.
You could potentially put the Caro out of business

[mixedvibes]

what do i do in
1.e4 e6
2.d4 d5
3.e5 c5
4.nf3

[brianpatrick]

Why not take the pawn on B2 with the Queen when the knight on H6 is taken by the bishop? Your Queen will then force the knight to move. Then take the bishop. This blocks Blacks Queen.

[TuxedoTalk]

I don't know if this counts as a gambit or not but at 3:20 I always just take the G pawn with my queen. I'm then threatening to capture the rook and they usually move their knight to defend with the queen. In some games I've ended up sacrificing the knight but getting the E, F and G pawns as compensation.