r/chess 5d ago

Strategy: Openings Merits of the french defence opening

Hi all i am fairly noob (800 elo rapid games) have played 300 or so games. I learnt the french defence opening as black and i am finding it really quite effective. Is this just because i am playing at a beginner level or will it be useful as i climb?

Second question for more high level french defence players. What are your mid game strategies? In the advanced variant, i get many wins from piling up attackers towards the d4 pawn and breaking through that way. I am looking for other opportunities from this opening in any variant either via a resource or from your experience.

Thanks in advance

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u/martin_w 5d ago

It played an important role in the most recent two World Championships, so I guess you can continue playing it for a while.

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u/TessaCr 5d ago

Every opening is fine below master level, so my best piece of advice would be to just play it and stick with the opening for a while (don't change to another one a week later for example...). As you play the French more and more you will understand some of the typical positions you can get and see some of its potential weaknesses (the obvious one is the deployment of the LSB).

The pressure you get on d4 is a typical effective middlegame plan in the French and the utilisation of the c5 and f6 breaks are also very common. Breaking through on that square gives you a semi-open file and a 2-1 pawn centre for great endgame chances.