For bckm : The Opening According to Anand vol. 5 will be out within a few months...

Tony Kosten's Advance French is a good book. Sets out all relevant ideas and plans in human lanuguage. Short on variations though.

This book *and* PTF3 should provide pretty sound knowledge.

Do you really think it is a good book? To me it always struck as a book written in one afternoon, without any detailed thoughts. I'm sorry, that's the impression I carry. Here are the reasons.

1. He suggests Advance variation. Collects all possible variations, takes a main game and fills in each moves with variations.

2. Variations are nothing but games won by white. I coundn't help carrying the impression that Chessbase opening survey utility was used to its fullest.

3. No original analysis and typical middle game plans were hard to find

I think the best way for a french player to beat someone who plays 1.e4 is to present that book to him

"Maybe someone will write a great book on beating the d**n french!"

Hehe, that's already been done, by Gary Lane.  It's a good book, and I read it a long time ago. 

I'm sure Gary's a nice fellow and a strong chessplayer, but his book didn't beat the French then and it won't beat the French now.  As I've said before, the best White can hope for, with best play from White and barring an error by Black, is the customary very slight opening advantage that White gets in most mainline openings.

I switched to the English many years ago from 1.e4 because I couldn't stand to play against  my beloved French.  But 1.c4 is even worse  than 1.e4 IMHO, at least for me, and I had  to come back  to the move that, at least now, makes  the most sense to me, 1.e4.  But I still shudder when Black plays his e-pawn one square on the first move... 

I have both books and they are good enough for most club players.  I'm not sure that we amateurs need to be that terribly picky.  Just get something you understand and go with it! 

Quote:

I am winawer player, but I was very disapointed by Watson's book and I mean really disappointed so you might just have got a buyer.

And here is the unwritten book in detail : 8)


French for the Clubplayer
or The Fearless French
or Play the French Classical Style

by GM/IM XYZ

003  Contents

004  Bibiliography

005  Foreword by V. Korschnoi

006  Acknowledgements to tracke

007  Part One :  Introduction

007  Historical Introduction
012  Middlegame Themes [RR: c5xd4,c5-c4,f7-f6]
020  Typical Endgames

028  Part Two :  The Standard Repertoire

028  The Classical Variation
045  The Alekhine-Chatard-Attack
055  Steinitz´ 4.e5
070  Tarrasch with 3...Nf6
090  Advance  Mainlines
110  2.d3 and 2.Qe2
120  The Exchange Variation
125  White Rubbish

135  Part Three : Alternatives

135  The MacCutcheon (Introduction)
150  The MacCutcheon Mainline
170  The Rubinstein with 4...Nd7
180  Fort Knox
188  Variations with 4.e5 Ne4?!
195  The Advance with Bd7-b5
205  Burning the Exchange [RR:sharp lines]

210  Part Four : 30 Illustrative Games

268  Index of complete Games

269  Index of Players

270  Index of Variations

* * *

That´s it !  Autumn 2005 by Gambit/Everyman/Batsford, ~28-35 Euro
Style: More demanding than "Starting Out ...", less complicated/sophisticated than Watson/Psakhis

Feel free to use this idea, I disclaim any copyrights!
Please write this book before Soltis will do it!
From my experience with clubmates you´ll sell many, many,many copies !!

tracke  

And Watson3 is good, too, at least for the minor lines (advance, KIA).

But I would like to see an one-volume black repertoire book dealing with 3.Nd2 Nf6 and 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Be7/b4 . And the other lines like Watson3. (edit: With a strategical introduction and maybe a small appendix about Rubinstein and 4...Ne4 variations, for blitz. Entitled "French for the Clubplayer". But nothing like Winawer or 3.Nd2 Be7 )
I cannot imagine that I am the only one.

tracke  ???

Many thanks to you both!   

This won't be much help to you, but in the absence of any other replies...

I have McDonald's Winawer book which is reasonably good.  The problem is that I was thinking of playing the Winawer but never did.  To be honest the general tone of the book just didn't inspire me to play it.  McDonald just didn't seem that enthusiastic - maybe he is just objective!

As regards Jacob's book, I don't have it but have looked at it at book stalls in tournaments.  From what I remember it was pretty good and had good coverage of the McCutcheon compared to Pedersen (which I also have).

To be honest if you just have Pedersen I would say buy the everyman books, but if you also have the 3 or 4 Psakhis volumes then there is probably not much point.

There's been a lot of discussion of Pedersen and Psakhis in earlier threads, but little reference to McDonald's Winawer and Jacobs's Classical French, both from Everyman.  Has anyone seen them?  How are they?  Would they complement the Gambit and Batsford offerings, or would they be superfluous additions to my chess library?  I'm especially curious about Jacobs's book, since the Classical French is the cornerstone of my repertoire with Black.