The French Defence
Give White the centre, build a pawn chain against it, and spend the game attacking the pawn at its base. Nobody else in chess plays for a plan this specific from move one. Step through it, then play it.
Last updated
- First moves
- 1. e4 e6
- ECO
- C00
- Best for
- Black
- Style
- Solid
- Theory
- Moderate
- Level
- Intermediate
The French Defence is 1.e4 e6, and it is the most plan-driven answer to 1.e4 in chess. Black concedes space voluntarily, builds a pawn chain against White's, and then attacks it - always at the base, always with pawns first. You will know what you are doing on move twenty of every French you ever play.
Everything about the French follows from that diagram. White has more space and will attack on the kingside, where the pawns point. Black has a target and will attack on the queenside, where Black's pawns point. And Black's light-squared bishop, sitting behind the e6-pawn, is the one problem that has to be solved before the plan can be executed.
The main line
The Advance French - the chain, the break, and the pressure on d4. Step through all thirteen moves.
Now play Black's side.
You are Black. Prepare ...d5, challenge the centre, and then attack the base of the chain White builds.
The Winawer: bishop for pawns
3.Nc3 defends the e-pawn with a piece, and Black's sharpest answer pins it immediately. What follows is one of the most unbalanced trades in chess.
The Winawer Variation - Black gives up the dark-squared bishop to wreck White's queenside.
The trap you must not fall for
The French's plan is to pile pieces on d4 - and the trap is what happens when you cash that pressure in one move too early.
After 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Nc6 5.Nf3 Qb6 6.Be2 cxd4 7.cxd4, the pawn on d4 is attacked twice and defended twice. It looks like a fair trade. It is not - because White's bishop on e2 can reach b5 with check.
You are Black. Keep building; do not collect.
The d4-pawn is attacked twice and defended twice. One of those captures loses your queen. Develop instead.
The plans, for both sides
Black's plans. Break at the base: ...c5 against d4 always, and ...f6 against e5 when the position calls for it. Pile pieces on the break square - ...Nc6, ...Qb6, ...Nh6-f5 or ...Nge7-f5 all point at d4. And solve the light-squared bishop: ...b6 and ...Ba6 to trade it, ...Bd7-b5 to activate it, or ...f6 to open its diagonal. Castle short in most lines, long in the Winawer's sharpest ones.
White's plans. Keep the chain and attack where the pawns point - the kingside. The typical piece placement is Nf3, Bd3, Bf4 or Be3, then castle short and play for f4-f5 or a piece sacrifice on h7. Hold d4 at all costs; if the base falls, the head on e5 falls with it. In the Winawer, the doubled c-pawns are a real weakness and the compensation has to be a real attack.
The recurring tactics are the check on b5 that this page's trap is built on - a skewer in everything but name, since the king must move and the queen behind it falls - the pin of the c3-knight by ...Bb4 that names the Winawer, and the fork on d6 and f7 that a knight reaching e4 always threatens. Mating attacks on h7 are the other half of the story: White's extra space points at a king sitting behind a locked centre, so checkmate patterns decide more French games than endgames do.
For the same structure with the bishop developed first, see the Caro-Kann Defence; for the opposite approach - unbalance the position instead of building a plan - the Sicilian Defence.
Try it
White has played 1.e4. Answer with the French.
The French is the defence that teaches pawn structure. Play it for six months and you will start seeing chains, bases and breaks in every position you look at - including the ones that have nothing to do with 1.e4 e6. The lessons take it from there.
Common questions
- What is the French Defence?
- The answer 1.e4 e6, preparing 2...d5 to challenge the centre. White usually replies 2.d4 d5 and then chooses: push past with 3.e5, defend with 3.Nc3 or 3.Nd2, or trade with 3.exd5. In every version Black ends up with a pawn chain aimed at White's, a slightly cramped position, and one very clear plan - break at the base of the chain with ...c5 and ...f6.
- Is the French Defence good for beginners?
- It is excellent for learning and demanding to play well. The plans are more concrete than in any other defence to 1.e4 - you always know where to break and which pieces belong where - and pawn-chain theory is one of the most transferable ideas in chess. The difficulty is the light-squared bishop: it starts life behind the e6-pawn, and a beginner who ignores it will spend forty moves with one piece missing.
- What is the problem with the French bishop?
- After 1...e6 and 2...d5, Black's c8-bishop is walled in by its own pawns on light squares. Every good French player has a plan for it: trade it off with ...b6 and ...Ba6, activate it via ...Bd7-b5, or break with ...f6 to open the diagonal. Solving that bishop is what separates a French player from someone who plays 1...e6.
- What is the Advance Variation?
- 3.e5, pushing past and locking the centre at once. It is the most common answer at club level and the clearest demonstration of the French's plan: White's pawn chain runs d4-e5, its base is d4, and Black plays ...c5, ...Nc6 and ...Qb6 to hammer that base. If Black wins the fight for d4, White's whole space advantage collapses.
- What is the Winawer Variation?
- 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4, pinning the knight that defends e4. After 4.e5 c5 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 Black hands over the bishop pair to wreck White's queenside pawns, and the resulting positions are among the most unbalanced in all of opening theory: White attacks on the kingside, Black eats the c-pawns. It is sharp, double-edged and heavily analysed.
- What is the trap every French player must know?
- Do not take on d4 twice. In the Advance Variation after 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Nc6 5.Nf3 Qb6 6.Be2 cxd4 7.cxd4, the pawn on d4 looks free - but 7...Nxd4? 8.Nxd4 Qxd4 9.Bb5+! is a check the queen cannot answer, and after any block White simply plays Qxd4. Develop with 7...Bd7 or 7...Nge7 and keep the pressure instead of cashing it in.
Ideas this opening runs on:
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