Introduction to the French defence

The 'French defence', though known since the time of Lucena Luis Ramirez, the 15th century author of the oldest surviving book regarding practical play, was virtually untested at the competitive level until the 19th century. The 'French defence' was popularized in the early 1800s. Even though the D6 pawn push by black was played prior to 1834, it was during a correspondence game between the cities of Paris and London that it gained its name. Jacques Chamouillet, pressured his teammates to push black's king's pawn to E6 as a response to white's opening E4 pawn push with great success, branding the opening as the 'French defence'.

The 'French defence, is adored by its proponents and despised by its opponents; the main line, is historically the most common variation, however just as in the Caro-Kann defence, it has recently been surpassed in popularity by the advanced variation, however it is still a common and worthwhile variation to explore. It has a reputation for solidity and resilience, although often times black's central pawn chain impedes the development of their light-squared bishop and white's initial expansion can cramp black's position in the early stages of the game. The French defence generally results in slow positional games, in which pawn breaks can make the difference between a winning or losing position. It is played by both amatures and professionals alike.

The advanced variation of the French Defense has a long history in competitive chess, with records of its use dating back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries. However, it gained significant prominence and attention during the early to mid-20th century as players such as Nimzowitsch, sought more aggressive alternatives to the classical lines. The goal of the early pawn push is to avoid the more solid but less aggressive lines of the classical variation. By advancing the e-pawn early, White aims to establish a strong pawn centre and potentially create pawn breaks on the kingside later in the game. However, the advanced variation comes with its drawbacks. By advancing the king's pawn, White creates a potential weakness on D4 and may sometimes find it difficult to develop on the queenside. Black often seeks to exploit white's undeveloped queenside by playing against White's pawn center, either by undermining it or by launching a kingside pawn storm. White cramps Black's position with their king's pawn push to E5, rendering blacks light-squared bishop as 'bad', since it spends most of the game, if not all of it trapped behind its own pawn chain. Black will pile on pressure to White's pawn on D4, looking for a pawn break to compromise white's central pawn chain. The advanced has grown in such popularity that it has surpassed the main line in use, one could make the argument that it is in fact the advance variation which should be renamed the main line, and the actual main line should be renamed the traditional variation.