Openings · C00–C19

French Defence

Supporting …d5 with a pawn: solid, sharp underneath, and famous for one bad bishop.

1.e4 e6played as Black

The idea

1…e6 prepares …d5 so the centre is challenged by a pawn rather than a piece. White usually has to decide on move three — push with e5, take with exd5, or defend the pawn with Nc3 or Nd2 — and each choice makes a different game.

The known problem is the bishop on c8, shut in by its own pawn on e6. Every good French player has a plan for it before the position needs one.

Practise the line

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

Your move 1 of 10/1

1.e4e6

White is answering…

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.

Leaving the bishop on c8

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e5 Nfd7

The mistake: Developing everything else and hoping the light-squared bishop will sort itself out.
Why it costs: It will not. This is the one structural weakness the French accepts in exchange for a solid centre, and the plans that make it fine are all deliberate ones.
Instead: Pick a route early: …b6 and …Ba6 to trade it off, …Bd7–b5, or a timely …f6 to open the position it is stuck behind.

Releasing the tension in the Advance

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Nc6 5.Nf3 cxd4

The mistake: Taking on d4 to clarify the position.
Why it costs: The pawn on d4 is the base of White's chain and the thing your whole position is aimed at. Once you take, it is replaced by a pawn on d4 that is defended by a pawn on c3, and the pressure you spent four moves building has gone.
Instead: Keep piling on: …Qb6, …Nh6–f5, …Bd7. Take on d4 when it wins the pawn or wins a piece, not when it makes the position simpler to look at.

Castling into the bishop on d3

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Be7 5.e5 Nfd7 6.Bxe7 Qxe7 7.Bd3

The mistake: Castling short without noticing the bishop, queen and knight lining up at h7.
Why it costs: The Greek gift — Bxh7+ followed by Ng5+ and Qh5 — is a standard motif in exactly this structure, because Black's kingside is short of defenders and the pawn on e5 takes f6 away from the knight.
Instead: Count the attackers before castling. …h6 at the right moment, keeping a knight able to reach f6, or castling long, are all ordinary answers — the mistake is not looking.

Where it fits

The lines out of it with pages of their own: French, Advance, French, Exchange, French, Tarrasch and French, Winawer.

Try it on one of your own

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