The French Defense According to the Dojo | GM Jesse Kraai

[@natekidwell]

This is a tremendous series. Just feels like the best way to teach openings.

[@bradleyreese5156]

Loving this series focusing on ideas! Awesome

[@sirenbrian]

This a great idea, thank you for making these potted summaries of openings. Will you continue and cover a lot of common openings? I vote for one on the Scotch and the QGD, if you're asking :)

[@Evilanious]

My "daauug"? 🤣

[@siempresepuede]

Excellent video. Makes me remember why I chose the French opening...long time ago!!

[@antonnovo695]

This is Gold! Thank you

[@bluefin.64]

Looks good. I've always thought the French is an opening every player should learn if they want to really understand chess. I never have, so this makes the Dojo training program even more inviting.

[@hannahbrown2728]

Adding this to my playlist and commenting for engagements sake. Ill be back when Im 1200

[@georgepurvis5874]

Good job! I used to play the French, and now I am returning to it.

[@davidbourgie2843]

This is another dimension for busy players.

[@joeleke64]

This is great!!

[@fess04]

that was awesome Jesse! The French . i am beginning not to have fear :)

[@GeneralBlorp]

There’s Nothing quite like seeing a grown man in a beret to angry up the chess blood 😅

[@khorndog]

Could you recommend certain principles in exchange variation? i hate it so much because sometikes i dont coordinate correctly in it

[@davidblue819]

I can recommend certain principles in the exchange variation, though I don't know if Jesse will approve. I recommend two principles. First, try to answer each move that White plays with a different move that's just as good. For example if White plays 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. exd5 exd5 4. Nf3 you can play 4... Bd6 because that's different from bringing your king's knight out but just as good. Second, you try to use the advantage of going second by playing a move that your opponent, going first and committing himself without knowledge of what you would play, has just promised not to punish in the best way. For example if White goes 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. exd5 exd5 4. Bd3, you can play 4... c5, bearing in mind that d3 is not the most threatening position for the bishop against an isolated d-pawn, or you can play 4... Nc6, bearing in mind that White promised not to pin your knight at c6 in one move. (He can only play Bb5 in two moves.) Again, you don't want to play a bad move or a weird move, just the normal move that might make the player of White feel that if he had known you wanted to play that he might have picked something different on his previous move. These two principles might not work for you but they work for me. If you try them and like them, you might find that French Defense Exchange Variation games don't stay "drawish" for long.

[@dkpandey1996]

The best piece of advice I have received from a KZbin comment in a long time. Thanks a lot, can't wait to try out your method!

[@dsrguru]

You can always castle long if you're afraid of a boring position.

[@manchasdos]

When Jesse says "1400 Chess com" does he mean blitz or rapid? My rapid is 200 above my blitz and I can't figure out which advice he's aiming at me.

[@ChessDojo]

Rapid

[@manchasdos]

@@ChessDojo Thank you.

[@kiroshakir7935]

7:33 it isn't a bad move it's just extremely sharp and complicated

[@claytonbenignus4688]

Why not The McCutcheon???

[@billagap3213]

You mentioned that in every opening (either with white or black) one of the minor pices will be bad. How about the queen's gambit with white? I find that all my pieces are happy 😊

[@wreynolds1995]

Usually Black plays ...c7-c6 and your Knight on c3 is just in the way of your Rooks (minority attack); eventually you'll have to move it. Or you might play the exchange variation and go for Ne2 followed by f2-f3 and either a central push e3-e4 or a Kingside push g2-g4 - in this case you're giving up your King Knight's happiness, because it's not doing anything on e2.

[@billagap3213]

@@wreynolds1995 in the first example i maneuver my knight from c3. In the second example i maneuver my knight from e2 to g3 where it controls the e4 break.

[@wreynolds1995]

@@billagap3213 The fact that you know what to do doesn't mean your Knights are good. It means you know how to fix them. The fact that they need to be fixed implies that there's something sub-par to begin with!

[@billagap3213]

@@wreynolds1995 yeah you're right. But i mean in queen's gambit the pieces are generally more mobile than in other openings.

[@wreynolds1995]

@@billagap3213 I must admit I do agree, though I still play 1.e4 myself.

[@howardberger3676]

I'm 1850 and too many variations to understand proper piece sequence....

[@bandyta460]

basically winawer is more challenging option for the opponent you must understand ideas which are harder than in the classical variation also i dont wanna see all these burn variations, when i look at them they seem to be better for white in my opinion in winawer my opponents never play queen g4 and all these critical lines I win like 60% of times because I know the ideas and my opponents usually have doubled pawns and I almost every time get a better position out of the opening

[@Darren_S]

I'm a French player. So I guess you don't like playing the Winawer.

[@daeuri]

The French is an opening where there is a major divide between Winawer and Classical players because you rarely see French players play both options. The more strategically minded players do not want to deal with the fireworks that can arise from the Poison Pawn variations, and they may find it off-putting to give up the Bf8 bishop leaving themselves with the problem cleric on c8.

[@billagap3213]

You can't possibly study all the fireworks that come out of the winawer variation. I have never ever seen identical winawer games. Most games end up with no player castling 😅😅complete madness. Also i don't like giving up the dark square bishop.

[@Leonjrxx]

Then you have Tyler 1 who just hit 1900 playing the cow as black and white... no opening theory, constantly in trouble according to the engine before move 10, and doing pretty well just by playing decent moves. Jesse speaks wisdom!

[@andrewcrane5105]

If you're 2000 elo, you're an international master? Not a grandmaster, correct?

[@gossedejong9248]

Fantastic!!!

[@benh.7942]

Bishop B4 players are heretics. That's me, i'm a heretic, lol. That being said I spent a year not playing it before I started doing so.

[@firasmoien1923]

As a 2000 elo chess player, i admire your style sir.

[@Socrates...]

Thanks Jesse

[@user-mathale]

Amazing voice

[@d33763]

I played the French defense, my pawns abandoned their positions, the knights fled the board and the king was negotiating a surrender.