Going for an early ...d4 is possible, although personally I'd prefer to just develop.

How Seirawan played is perfectly sensible, but 11...h4 was probably slightly inaccurate.

Whenever in doubt about lines in the French you can always check games of Yuri Shulman who knows his stuff backwards. He played 7...Bd7 8.Bd3 Nh4. Also perfectly logical, safe, and sensible.

There are so many good playable ways for Black here it comes down to personal preference.

Glenn Snow wrote on 12/26/13 at 21:40:05:



Yes, Naka beat Seirawan with an eventual d2-d4:

1. e4 e6 2. f4 d5 3. e5 c5 4. Nf3 Nc6 5. c3 Nge7 6. Na3 Nf5 7. Nc2 h5 8. Bd3 g6
9. O-O Be7 10. Bxf5 gxf5 11. d4 et al.

My Watson 3d edition has no recommendation whatsoever as to an early f4, does the 4th edition deal with this possibility?

(Sorry I had to cut out the links there, but I haven't posted enough thread replies to have chesspub allow me to post anything with a link in the message)

ghenghisclown wrote on 12/26/13 at 10:22:06:


I wouldn't think black playing d4 is necessary. 
Just treat it as a nice Steinitz, where the knight may be happier going to f5 or g4 instead.
For black: e6 d5 c5 Nc6 Rb8 b5 a5 Qb6 Nh6 etc. That kind of thing. 
White is white, it is a game.

Doesn't Nakamura sometimes play 2. f4 against the french? The idea is to carefully prepare d4, and then get a nice position after d2-d4 (or d3-d4) once black misplayed something.

Actually I would say it is rather inflexible - the early f2-f4 allows Black to develop his king's knight easily with ...Nh6-f5. Just keep in mind that if White doesn't play d2-d4 there is no reason for Black to play ...Qb6 (unless he's planning to play ...d4 himself - not a bad idea to gain central space, but it does give up e4 so it's double-edged.) Play ...Qc7 instead and look to break in the centre with ...f6 (since White's e-pawn is not supported by a pawn on d4) or expand on the queenside with ...b5, which no longer needs to be prepared with ...a6 since White generally has no control over the b5-square after he plays d2-d3 and Na3-c2.
Sidelines are usually sidelines for a reason and when Goeller recommends a line for White, it's usually good for Black

Review of the book  here: http://www.chessville.com/reviews/SOS8.htm

And in previous realease of SOS, SOS7, there was the Gledill Attack vs the French, written by J.O.Leconte and I.Glek:
http://www.nicbase.nl/Shop/ProductDetails.aspx?ProductID=332

Marsh towers http://marshtowers.blogspot.com/ gives Reference to game Zvjaginsev-Zhang Pengzxiang, Ergun 2006

OstapBender wrote on 04/13/08 at 04:41:39:


thanks for your reply.  I was really surprised to find Morphy on the Black side of French too.  Worth pointing out, I think, that only the McConnell game started 1. e4 e6 so really he only played a pure French Defence once.