FreeRepublic wrote on 05/29/23 at 14:34:59:

Unfortunately, this seems to be the case with the 6...Qc7 Winawer. After 7.Qg4 f5 8.Qg3, the continuation 8...Ne7 9.Qxg7 Rg8 10.Qxh7 cxd4, which Botvinnik played in both of his world championship matches with Tal, has scored poorly.  And the supposedly more solid 8...cxd4 9.cxd4 Ne7 is met by 10.Ne2!, when Black's "opening scheme seems to be in trouble", as Watson states in last year's C18 French Defense ChessPub Guide.  Only Moskalenko's recommendation 8...Nc6 seems to be hanging on.

I'm not sure if Black's poor results are entirely due to computer analysis, but at least this sword cuts both ways. In his Chessable course, Giri acknowledges engine assistance in the formulation of lines where Black escapes from some seemingly desperate situations. Some of Giri's lines run to move 30 and beyond, so their applicability to otb play by mere mortals might be open to question. At least he shows that both the 12...d4 and the older 12...Bd7 Poison Pawn lines are viable.

FreeRepublic wrote on 05/29/23 at 14:34:59:

I wish I could find the remark I read (perhaps by Watson or possibly Matthew Sadler), where an engine evaluation of a French position is in White's favor because of "Stockfish's usual preference for space". Interestingly, in my limited experience, Lc0 doesn't seem to value space as much. I just got Dragon 3.2 a few weeks ago, and it appears to be intermediate between the other two engines in its evaluations.

tp2205 wrote on 04/20/23 at 03:51:30:

I have the book, so I can give some details beyond what can be deduced from the sample provided by the publisher. For the Winawer, Jacimovic and Zlatanovic("J&Z") cover the mainline Poison Pawn with 12...d4 and also 6...Qa5, as noted in Reply #3. As can be seen, the book gives two lines in the Winawer, and it also follows this practice for all of the main variations.   

For the Advance, after 1.e4 e6 2.d4 3.e5 c5 4.c3, the authors offer both 4...Bd7 and 4...Nc6 5.Nf3 Bd7. In the former line, Black aims to follow up with ...Qb6 and ...Bb5, exchanging off the "French bishop". This approach is advocated in Neil McDonald's How to Play Against 1.e4 and Bryan Tillis' Chessable course Master the French Defense, although both of these authors begin their versions with 4...Qb6 and follow with ...Bd7-b5. 

As mentioned in Reply #3, J&Z's preferred lines against the Tarrasch are the Guimard (3...Nc6) and 3...c5 4.exd5 Qxd5.  However, there's a bit of a wrinkle in the second line because when White later hits the black queen with Bc4, Her Majesty retreats to d7, and not the more usual d6. This ...Qd7 idea, which is also covered by Tillis in his Chessable course, has become popular in the last few years. A search of MegaBase yields a "Hot" designation for the move.

I haven't delved into the book in great detail, but the analysis I've gone through seems solid.  After my initial skimming of the book, I was disappointed that it didn't cover recent White challenges to the French such as 10.Qd3 in the Poison Pawn and the delayed Milner-Barry Gambit (MBG).  My dissatisfaction was partly allayed when I reread Reply #3 with anon's description of the book as being aimed at "average" (club) players.  Thus The French Defense Revisited is intended to instruct such players rather than presenting cutting edge theory.   

However, it could be argued that the delayed MBG should have been covered, along with such things as the Wing Gambit and the Winckelmann-Riemer Gambit, since these are the sort of tricky lines that some club players employ to avoid mainline theory. J&Z do cover the original version of the MBG, but no mention is made of the new, delayed variant or of the Wing and W-R Gambits. It should be noted that the delayed MBG is the suggested anti-French line in multiple White 1.e4 repertoires, including the Chessable course by GothamChess (IM Levy Rozman). In fact, I recently received a promotional email from Chessable praising Simon Williams' Grandmaster Gambits course.  He recommends the delayed MBG against the French, although in the course description, it's been rebranded as "Magnus Carlsen's upgraded Milner-Barry Gambit". And it's called "the improved Milner-Barry Gambit" in the information on Rozman's course.

Despite my quibbling, I think The French Defense Revisited does a good job of providing a solid foundation for those looking to adopt the French.  The illustrative games section looks to be quite instructive, and the solutions to the twenty or so problems are given as entire games, so readers can see the test positions within the proper content.

The French Defense Revisited is now among the upcoming items listed on the "Announcements" page on the Niggemann website. Perhaps Thinkers Publishing responded to the comments in this forum since the excerpt has been expanded beyond what was given on Forward Chess.  It now shows additional pages with the Table of Contents for the chapter on the Winawer plus about a dozen pages of the analysis of White's 4th and 5th move deviations from the main line. 

Like Anon in Reply #3, I'm not a fan of the layout. For example, the excerpt begins the analysis of 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.a3 on page 103, but then proceeds to cover other White 4th moves. We don't get back to Black's response to 4.a3 until six pages later.

There's also a bit of editorial untidiness since the main Table of Contents refers to the "Winawer Attack" (a name that I haven't seen before), while the Chapter 5 calls it the usual "Winawer Variation" throughout.

The table of contents carries the reader out to move 3 in the The French Defense Revisited. As noted before, Kotronias's book on the King's Indian has an Index of variations that goes out to move 25. I suggest something between move 3 and 25. Somewhat arbitrarily, perhaps move 9 may be a reasonable guide or rule.

ForwardChess wrote on 04/19/23 at 16:48:05:


The TOC is not enough since it does not provide any information beyond we cover the French Defence with sample games and exercises (the only thing I understood was that after 3, Nc3 the book covers Bb4 and after 3. Nd2 Nc6) but which lines in the WInawer (e.g. allowing Qxg7 and if so the ...d4 lines or more classical lines, 7...O-O, 6...Qc7, 6...Qa5, 4...b6) I have no idea, similarly there is no indication of what system is chosen against the Advance Variation. 

But as Anon posted 3... c5 4. ed Qd5 is also covered. The current TOC gives no indication of that.

Ideally I would like
- a sample chapter/part of a chapter to be able to get an idea of the style and depth of analysis (current chapter is fine)- - 
- (optionally abbreviated) index of variations (for me the most important)
- one sample exercise 
- one sample game 

The last two would not be necessary if exercises/games are just a small part of the book, however since they seem to cover a large portion of the book (Part 2 and 3) including them would be very helpful.

Also the TOC does not include page numbers so there is no way to guess the relative size of the various parts. The exercises could be an afterthought covered in a few pages or each exercise might get the royal treatment with detailed discussion of plans, variations etc.

We would definitely appreciate your advice and help on how to present the content/samples. Generally speaking, we try to follow the samples that the publishers put out, to avoid, you know, arguments about giving away too much.

It seems that in this case the TOC is not good enough.
What would you recommend we did? All help is welcome!

I share your frustration regarding the sample pages. They give some information on the lines recommended against 2.b3 and 2.Qe2, but there's absolutely nothing on the main French lines.  It almost seems like the sample was designed to withhold that information from potential buyers of the book.  Perhaps it's selective memory on my part, but this sort of inadequate preview appears to be happening with some regularity with books and and other products, such as Chessable courses.  A potential buyer gets the impression that the publisher is deliberately being vague since it's felt that giving buyers more information may hurt sales.

In the past, I've written to Thinkers Publishing about a problem with one of their previews.  In that case, the table of contents had been omitted, so it was impossible to know what was covered in the book.  I received a friendly reply from TP saying that they would correct the error, but nothing was ever done.  Given that experience, I don't know if there's a point to trying again with this new French book.

There is a new book out on the French (on forwardchess): 

    The French Defense Revisited: A Practical Guide for Black by Zlatanovic & Jacimovic

The sample pages are useless. Does anybody know which lines are actually covered?