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The French Defense

Important variations are animated at the bottom of the page.

This is a very common defense.  It can be very good if you get experienced with it and toy around with it.  The main line goes 1. e4, e6  2. d4, d5.  This is rated the second-best opening.  The best rated have 2: Sicilian, and Nimzo Indian according to http://homepage.ntlworld.com/adam.bozon/stats.htm. 

The French Defense
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Many people think that it is a great idea to advance the e pawn, but in fact, this is not as good as the other variations.  There are lots of variations on any commonly used opening, and this is one of them.  Statistically, taking the pawn is better than pushing it for white.  This is probably your best bet if you are unsure of what you are doing.  This opens up both positions and gives white lots of good choices to develop, but black has the same opportunities, but because white is first in an open game, white has a slight advantage. 
   
The French Defense after black's move 4
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The advance variation is 3. e5.  This gives black a bad bishop and one less spot to move the g knight.  However, black can utilize his pieces on the queen side in order to make it safer for himself and he will eventually free up his pieces.  The most common response to pushing is 3... c5.  This looks similar to the queen's gambit.  White can do several things at this point.  4. c3 is the most common response.  This is normally followed by 4... Nc6. 

   
The Advance variation after
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Black is much better overall in the advance variation.  White has difficulty gaining the initiative and black has a good queenside attack.  After the knight move, 5. Nf3 is best.  The problem with this move is that f4 is blocked by that knight.  If you were to try f4 before that, then black has quick enough development to hinder white for quite some time.  It might follow as such: 5. f4, Qb6  6. Nf3, pxp  7. pxp, Bb4+  8. Nc3 Ne7.  Black is clearly better.  So, after 5. Nf3, Qb6 to add fuel to the fire. 
   
The Steiner Variation
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I enjoy using a variation called the Steiner Variation.    The line reads 1. e4, e6  2. c4.   This is so that if black chooses to play d5, I can turn the French defense into a Scandinavian Defense.  You can see it through the next picture.  2...d5  3. pxp, pxp  4. pxp.  This will look very similar to the Scandinavian Defense.  Just like that, black can take right away or move Nf6.  If he plays Nf6, you can try Bb5+.
   
The French-Scandinavian Game
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If you want to know how to attack after both of those, take a look at the Scandinavian Defense section.  White has many good options here.  The reasoning for the Steiner variation is to exchange both of black's center pawns for an isolated center pawn of your own.  This can easily become a passed pawn.  This is my preferred move.  It turns the French Defense into a French-Scandinavian Defense. 

   
The Steiner Variation Avoided
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If the opponent pushes 2...c5, then it creates a Sicilian defense.  White can play 3. Nf3, Nc6  4. d4 and try to turn it into a Maroczy Bind type of game.  This of course requires 4... pxp.  Then 5. Nxp and the game is interesting.  If I were black, I would follow up with one of these plans of development: Nf6, Bb4, Qa5 or Bc5, Qb6, Ne7.  White has a few minor problems to contend with, so he should probably exchange knights immediately and use the c pawn as leverage against d5.  I think that 2... c5 yields problems for white. 

   
The Classical Variation after 7. Nb5
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The fourth way to defend this is probably the best answer white has.  3. Nc3.  I recommend 3...pxp for black.  This turns into the Rubenstein variation.  4. Nxp, Nf6  5. Bg5, Be7 and black will play with a queenside fianchetto to get his other bishop out.  It seems pretty solid, but I have never encountered anyone who plays that.  Instead, they play two different variations.  The first of the two is called the classical variation.  3... Nf6.  This move is very weak.  The line I am about to provide is one which requires sheer memorization.  4. Bg5.  Note that black does not have pxp anymore because he will lose tempo with BxN, QxB, Nxp.  After Bb4, e5 would be a good option for white, so naturally, black must move 4... Be7.  Now white gets a very good attack and binds black.  5. e5, Nfd7  6. BxB, QxB  7. Nb5.  This is shown to the left.  Black has one good option and only one.  7... Nb6.  Many people I have played seem to play Na6, but this is bad because black will never get the knight to move from b5.  The c pawn cannot kick it because of the nice d6 square.  I once played a guy who played 7... Qb4+.  I played 8. c3, Qxb2?  9. Rb1 Qxa2 10. Nxc7+, Kd8 11. Nxa8 and I won the game easily and shortly thereafter.  So after 7... Nb6, 8. c3 is a must to prevent the queen check, and after 8... h6, then 9. Na3 and white has much more play than black does.  Black naturally wants to play c5 to attack d4 which is a weakness for white, but now the move seems weak.  The knight from a3 can redevelop to c2 and retard black's play. 
   
The Winawer Variation with 5. Bd2
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So, naturally, black has a few other tricks up his sleeve.  3... Nf6 is extremely weak, so black plays the Winawer Variation.  We have our opening moves 1. e4, e6  2. d4, d5  3. Nc3 and now black plays 3... Bb4 pinning the knight.  This creates a problem on e4, so white is forced to play 4. e5.  Black now plays 4... c5 with a bang.  Most theory tells players to play a3 at this point.  However, this runs into a whole mess of theory that can go as far as 20-25 moves deep.  I think that is an awfully long time to wait to put your own personal spin on a game of chess.  The games get very boring very quickly, and I like my games to have an oomph.  So I suggest that if you want a good attack to play here 5. Bd2 as shown to the left. 
   
The Winawer Bd2 variation after 9. Bd3.   
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The natural reaction here is for black to take what looks like a free pawn on d4.  However, if he does this, White's knight will go to b5.  After BxB+, QxB, and now, not only will it be impossible to hold the pawn on d4 (white can pile on attackers with such moves as Nf3 and 0-0-0), black cannot stop white from playing Nd6+.  This gives white an outposted knight right in the middle of black's play.  This is very hard for black to dislodge.  Plus, black loses the right to castle.  Therefore, 5... pxp is a bad move.  Black's best move might be BxN right away.  However, No one I have faced has done this.  After pxN, white plays with extra tempo.  He developed his bishop instead of playing a3 which is good because white tends to make this move anyway in the lines of the French Defense.  The most common move here is 5... Ne7.  White plays 6. Nb5, BxB+  7. QxB, 0-0  8. f4.  White commonly plays this move.  As the great Nimzovich said, the best way to attack a pawn chain is at the base.  White intends to play f5 later on if he so chooses.  8... pxp 9. Bd3.  Note that white does not take the pawn back.  If he does right away, black will gain tempo by playing Nbc6 and it destroys white's whole purpose in playing Bd2 earlier.  Now the d pawn provides as a protective barrier to the kingside.  Black cannot get through his own pawn, so that leaves white to attack kingside.  The bishop assists with f5 and makes a good attack on h7.  Oftentimes, the bishop will take h7, the king will take, and then the knight goes to g5 for a check.  This is assuming that white can play Qh5 the next move which he cannot in this position. 
   
Variation 1
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So, moving on, 9... a6  10. Nd6.  I apologize for such a long line of play.  I like games that don't require this theory, but you have to learn it to a certain degree.  Just note that these should be pretty easy to remember because the moves are not that complex -- they flow.  10... Nbc6.  Take a look at black's bishop.  It looks worse and worse as we go on.  11. Nf3, f6.  This is the most common response.  I honestly have no idea what move is the best, but I doubt, that f6 is it.  12. 0-0, pxp 13. pxp.  Here we have two ways to attack for black.  The first of these is simply 13... Nxp.  This looks like it wins the pawn.  For visual purposes, I will call this "Variation 1" and the next one respectively.  14. NxN, RxR+.  The rook exchange is important because if he plays QxN right away, white will have the initiative and maintain it with mating attacks and other combinations starting with RxR+ for white.  15. RxR, QxN.  Now white must have some good attacks because he is down two pawns, and d5 is much easier to defend now.  16. Nf7 is a very good move.  Now, 16... Qc7  17. Qe2!  This position is shown to the left.  Black cannot prevent Qh5.  If g6, Qf3, and black will be checkmated very soon.  white can play Ng5, Qh3 if necessary (it shouldn't be) and even Bxg6 very soon.  If Ng6, Ng5 and the queen is coming over to h5 next move.  The rook can go to f7 if needed and white even has a knight sacrifice on h7 as well.  White has an extremely powerful attack and black is starting to run out of play. 
   
Variation 2
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We can conclude that variation 1 only leads to trouble.  So on to variation 2.  The move that has just been played is 13. pxp.  Now black can play a powerful rook exchange sacrifice with 13... RxN.  Of course, white responds 14. RxR.  Now 14... NxP.  The next move was recommended by GM Eugene Perelshteyn via ICC video.  15. Qf4!  15... NxR is forced.  16. pxN.  At this point, it is very hard for black to stop checkmate as well.  Note that Qf8 loses to Bxh7+!  Black can play Nf5 here, but after BxN, pxN, Re1 (threatening Re8+), Bd7, Qe5 (not Qxd4), black is going to lose both of the pawns that he won before.  Bc6 does not defend d5 because of Qe6+ followed by Nf7+ winning the queen.  The only possible way to save it is Qa5, and that is pretty useless considering how many attacks white can get out of it.  The only other real choice now is Nc6.  16... Nc6 prevents checkmates by allowing the queen to have more activity and come to e7 if needed.  17. Qf7+, Kh8.  Now, Qh5 looks like a winning move, but as Perelshteyn mentions, g6, Bxp, and Qg8 pinning the bishop destroys everything.  Therefore, 18. Kh1 is the best move.  Black cannot take the knight because of the checkmate threat and he also has to worry about Rg1.  Now it is only a matter of time before checkmate.  It is inevitable.  After Qg8, Qf4 threatening to win the queen with Nf7, Nd8.  After g6, Bxg6, and that is as far as I bring you.  You can figure out the rest.  Happy hunting!
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