Openings · C02

French, Advance

3.e5 — take the space, close the centre, and spend the rest of the game defending d4.

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5played as White

The idea

The chain e5–d4 gives White more room and shuts Black's light-squared bishop in behind its own pawn on e6, which is the French's structural problem stated as sharply as it can be.

Black attacks the base of the chain with …c5, …Nc6 and …Qb6, so every White move after the third is really an answer to the question "and how is d4 defended?". c3 answers it, a3 and Be2 support it, and the attack, when it comes, comes on the kingside where the extra space is.

Practise the line

You play White; the other side answers on its own. Nothing here is saved or graded.

Your move 1 of 30/3

1.e4e6
2.d4d5
3.e5

Your move. Drag a piece, or tap it and then its square.

Common mistakes

Three that come up again and again below master level. Each is ordinary opening theory — a named trap, or the error every coach corrects — not a statistic, and not drawn from anybody's games.

Playing the Milner-Barry without meaning to

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Nc6 5.Nf3 Qb6 6.Bd3 cxd4 7.cxd4 Nxd4

The mistake: Developing with 6.Bd3 while d4 is attacked three times and defended twice.
Why it costs: This is a named gambit rather than an oversight, but it is a gambit, and the pawn goes by force. The compensation is the black king stuck in the centre with White's pieces arriving at it, and it exists only for somebody who knows 8.O-O Nxd4 9.Nxd4 Qxd4 10.Nc3 move for move.
Instead: 6.a3, the main line, or 6.Be2. Both defend everything and keep the space advantage that 3.e5 was played for.

Relieving the pressure by taking on c5

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Nc6 5.Nf3 Qb6 6.dxc5 Bxc5

The mistake: Taking on c5 to stop being attacked.
Why it costs: The pawn on c5 was the attacker. Taking it hands Black a free developing move for the dark-squared bishop, opens the position for the better developed side — which is not White any more — and dissolves the pawn chain. The space disappears with the pawn that created it.
Instead: Hold it: c3 and a3, or Be2, and let Black be the one who has to decide when the tension breaks.

Letting the knight reach f5

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Nc6 5.Nf3 Nh6 6.Bd3 Nf5

The mistake: Ignoring 5…Nh6, on the grounds that a knight on the rim is Black's problem.
Why it costs: The knight is not going to h6, it is going to f5, where it attacks d4 for the third time and cannot be driven off by a pawn without g4 — a move that wrecks the wing White wants to attack on.
Instead: The usual answer is Bxh6. The dark-squared bishop has little future behind the pawn chain anyway, and the doubled pawns and the missing knight are worth more here than the pair of bishops.

Where it fits

The French, Advance is a variation of the French Defence, whose page covers the ideas this one takes for granted.

Try it on one of your own

The board above is for the line itself; this is for a game you played. Paste a game in this opening, or pull one from chess.com, and every move is graded against what the engine would have played. Open the board, read how the grading works, or go back to the other openings.