BlackMood Openings

The French Attack!

3. e5 – The advanced variation

A few things to remember.

1. Our dark-squared Bishop is an important one. We try to keep it in the game.

2. White should try to exchange the dark-squared Bishops.
3. We should try to exchange the light-squared Bishops, it’s our bad one.
4. We try to put pressure on White’s center.

Here we have 3 options.

Plan 1
We play 3…c5, putting pressure on d4 pawn, the defender of e5.
White plays 4.c3 keeping the pawn chain. And we pressure the d4 pawn with our
pieces.
 Plan 2
We exchange the bad light-squared Bishop first.

Plan 3 – My recommendation
White has different reactions.

1. White takes on b5
Our plan is:

2. White doesn’t take

We have 2 plans:

With short castle, and pressuring on d4 Romantic game, with attacking the White’s King
My preference?
I’m a romantic guy, I love to attack 😊

3. 5.c4

We take it, and our bad “French Bishop” becomes a monster!

Step 1: take on c4 Step 2: getting a monster Our plan

4. 5.a4
We trick them by switching to plan 1, attacking the d4, additionally exploiting the
b4 weakened square.

or
Attacking the “d4” square Exploiting the “b4 square”
 5. 5.Nc3

We trick them again.

We go 5…c5 and White can’t play 6.c3 keeping the pawn chain.

Switching to plan 1 Interesting plan with long castle

6. White tries to keep the Bishops

We bring the Knight to f5 and then play c5.
If they move the Knight, we exchange the Bishops.
 7. Early f4

This move has 2 downsides:

1. It allows us Nh6 move!

2. It weakens the g1-a7 diagonal

The 1st downside The 2nd downside Our plan

3. ed5 – The exchange variation

This is a very safe variation for French.

But if you want to play aggressive chess, here is how we setup our pieces:
Anytime, White plays h3, we happily retreat to f5, and use the h3 as a target.
Later we can sacrifice on h3 or push our pawns using the target on h3.

or
 3. ed5 with 4.c4

Looks aggressive, but the d4 pawn becomes weak.

We play 4…Nf6, wait for White to develop the light squared Bishop, and take on
c4, forcing them to lose a tempo.

Then we play against the isolated pawn on d4.

If they play c5, we attack their pawn chain, and they can’t keep it.

3. Nc3 Nf6

We continue pressuring on e4 pawn.

Now White has 2 main options. 4.e5 or 4.Bg5
If they try 4.Bd3 c5 is very strong!

3. Nc3 Nf6 4.e5

We have 2 options:

Option 1 – The main move 4…Nfd7

Then we attack White’s center with c5, as there is no c3 option for White, keeping
the pawn chain.
The downside is that White can play f4, and our d7 Knight is far from f5.

After 5…c5 6.Nf3 we have 2 plans:

Plan 1 Plan 2
Option 2 – 4…Ng8!!?? Outside the box thinking

Looks unnatural, but on d7 was it really better?

From g8 it can go to f5!
White has a few logical replies:

1. f4

The Knight goes to f5, and we pressure on d4.

 2. Nf3 or Bd3

In both cases we go c5!

Then we have an interesting plan with long castle!

Just 1 thing to remember.
We play a6, before Ne7, securing the a7-g1 diagonal.

3. 5.Be3, trying to avoid c5

Then the Knight goes to f5, before playing c5.

 3. Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5
McCutcheon Gambit!

This is super unknown, and even in the Google you can’t find it! Seriously 😊

1. If White takes on f6 and accept the pawn sacrifice, we go Bb4!

And after 7.de6 Be6 we have a few plans to continue the attack!

Plan 1 Plan 2 Plan 3

2. If White goes 6.e5, we retreat and then attack the center with c5, Nc6, Qb6.

3. If White goes back to h4 they lose the central pawn after 6…g5
 3. Nd2 – The Tarrasch variation

We go 3…Nc6, a rare and tricky move. We use the downsides of the 3.Nd2 move,
that limited White’s Queen and the Bishop.

We attack the d4 pawn, and on below 1,500 level, many of your opponents will
blunder it by playing 4.e5
After 3…Nc6 White has 3 logical moves.

1. 4.Ngf3
We attack the e4 pawn with 4…Nf6

If 5.Bd3, we have 5…Nb4

If 5.e5, we go 5…Nfd7 and then f6.

Our plan is to organize e5, get rid of our weak pawn and unlock our pieces.
 2. 4.c3

Now we can’t do the same, because we allow f4.

❌ ❌

Instead, we immediately challenge the center with 4…e5

✅
 3. 4.Bb5

We take on e4, and then… The key move – Qd5!

 3. Bd3 – The Schlechter variation
(facing ChessMood students)

We play with a similar idea, as against 3.Nd2

3…Nc6!?
But now we not only attack the d4 pawn, but we also want to play Nb4!

1. If they allow us Nb4

We get the opponent’s Our plan

Bishop, with a smile on our face

2. If they don’t allow Nb4… We go e5!

4.c3 4…e5! – declaring a war

 The Two Knights’ variation

We go 3…Nf6 and transpose to our variations.

After 4.e5 we have both options.

In this case I believe 4…Nfd7 is stronger, as White can’t play 5.f4 anymore. They
have the Knight on f3!
 2.c4

It doesn’t stop us from playing d5.

We just capture it back with the Knight.
 2.Qe2

2.Qe2 2…e5 – the paradoxical move Our Plan

2.d3 – The King’s Indian Attack

We go d5, threatening to take on e4.

And after 3.Nd2 the main move, we have the same paradoxical option:

3…e5!?

If White takes on d5, we get a strong Queen, as it can’t be attacked with Nc3 (the
Knight is on d2!)
Otherwise, we have 2 plans. We can castle short or long.

Castle short Castle long

In both cases we have the center, good development, and a fine position!

______________________________________________________________________________

The last thing:

If someone asks you what you play against 1.e4 and you say French defense, I’ll find you
and sue you :D
We play French attack! :D

Good luck, my friend!