Chess Openings: Learn to Play the French Defense Against the Advance Variation!

[@AaronRinggenberg]

playing against the Advance French are my favorite positions in all of Chess. there are so many cool queenside maneuvers and attacks and ways to pressure white's position. love seeing videos like this!

[@TomBrooklyn]

Hi Giant. Great lecture! Dense with info and no wasted words! I'd be interested in seeing other variations of the French.

[@achyuthankarthikeyan3287]

Your videos are brilliant, the fact that you have so few subscribers does sadden me. Hopefully, your channel will become famous soon.

[@TheChessGiant]

Hey Achyuthan! Thanks for the kind words my friend! We will keep putting in the work, and hopefully the subscribers will continue to follow. Thank you for your support!

[@donrobinson3378]

U r the best coach out there u don't dilly dally thanks Don

[@randyking9489]

Great video! I play the French, but have real trouble against the advance variation. This video was very helpful. Thanks again

[@johnp845]

thank you for this! A video on how white can play the Tarrasch counter against the French defense would be greatly appreciated! 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nd2 thank you for considering!

[@TheChessGiant]

Of course John! And thanks for the chess opening! The Tarrasch against the French Defense is a good opening for white that is often overlooked. Thanks for always sharing video content ideas!

[@lionelbowhunter468]

Thx a lot Solomon, a pure jewel! I love this defense, my main defense and i try to learn it since 3 years only. Your video about the advance ( my fav variation to play against) is clear and intuitive = bravo :) Your channel is way too underrated really. I wish you the best my friend. Greetings from France^^

[@TheChessGiant]

Thank you Lionel for the kind words as always! The French, as you said, is a great chess opening. It's considered an annoying opening to play against for a reason! I wish you the best as well, more chess content on the way!

[@lionelbowhunter468]

@@TheChessGiant Thx my friend :)))

[@TheChessGiant]

Of course brotha!

[@skyeruddell3196]

Another wonderful video, thank you! 👏

[@TheChessGiant]

Thank you for watching! More chess opening videos on the way!

[@Daniel-G-P]

Another fantastic video! Superb channel 👏

[@TheChessGiant]

Thank you Daniel! Truly humbled man, more content on the way!

[@Daniel-G-P]

@@TheChessGiant Honestly, I love your videos. Along with Chess Vibes and Robert Ramirez, your videos are my favourite.

[@SEAKPhotog]

Great stuff as always! Thanks.

[@TheChessGiant]

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it. As always, let me know if there's any chess opening content you'd want to see on this channel!

[@timb8549]

Thanks for this! Scandinavian player here, mucking around 1200 or so at best. Down there in the eloslums, we see a lot of 1.e4 d5 2. e4. . . and we're out of 99 percent of the Scandinavian analysis. The most help we get is "it's like a French advance, but with your bishop outside of the pawn chain" (assuming Bf4, which I play on move 2) and they give nearly nothing else. But. . . like. . . what if we don't know the French Advance?? So, I'm digging in. And why wouldn't someone just analyze that line of the Scandi, for as often as it shows up at lower levels? It may just have to fall to us scrubs to put something together lol. This video will be a good start for me. It will be interesting to see which ideas translate almost exactly, and in what ways the Scandi player can produce other opportunities with the bishop out there. Thank you also for not saying "and here guys" every ten seconds. :D I really do like the pace and depth of your videos, but that nearly killed me in another video! lol. Cheers.

[@quipsyishere]

Can you do a video on the polish defense? It's one of my favorite openings to take 1.d4 players out of theory

[@TheChessGiant]

I like this idea! I'll definitely make it a priority to make this one! I've never heard of it but it looks super interesting playing b5 against d4! Totally throws white off their game.

[@stephenloft835]

For someone who plays white on the French Advance, I picked up some valuable information. Regarding white a3 with Be2 at around 19:56 black starts his trek to a4 white castles and his rook goes to e1 to make way for Nf1. Instead of Re1, move f3 N to e1 with white going f4, Bg4 threatening f5. You can move that e1 N to c2 if you want to work on the queen side. White has N’s on d2 and c2, not f3 and g3. I think this gives white a better chance on the king side but would like your thoughts on this. Again, this is a great channel and look for your posts daily. The Urusoff gambit would be a fun topic to present here.

[@TheChessGiant]

Hey Stephen, thanks so much, I'm glad you enjoyed it. And thanks for the info that's a super interesting maneuver with the knight pair working on the kingside. I actually really like that for white! The only thing I would be a aware of is a Nb3 move forcing a knight trade because of that black knight attacking the rook on a1. But even then, this is completely okay for white and makes that area of the board a little less cramped. Thanks for sharing! And I just made a note to do the Urusoff Gambit!

[@stephenloft835]

@@TheChessGiant Hi Solomon! The R moves to b1 before castles then the N moves from white. N or B on b3 isn’t that big of a problem since you can have a N on d2, B on c2 and c1 with Q on d1 and N’s on c2 and d2. Depending upon whether the B or N occupies b3 white has options. d2 N can go back to f3, the c2B can go to kingside with Q to e2 with space appropriate to the number of pieces in that area. You can also open the B file after black castles Long. Half open b file for a rook might be useful in certain situations. This approach is beautifully presented by GM Jesse Kraai in a rather in-depth analysis of the a2 variation of the French Advance. This is just the Be2 one. g3, h4 is another. I found your channel because of the Snyder Sicilian. I’m 71 and back in late 70’s I took some lessons from Robert Snyder and bought one of his game books with a couple of games using that response. Haven’t played chess in over a decade and after my medical issues were solved I just got back to chess and found KZbin and your channel. Lots of changes! So I’m looking at chess in a whole new light!

[@TheChessGiant]

Thanks for that explanation, I can tell you know the game of chess well! Also wow, that is super fascinating that you got lessons from Snyder. That's super cool that at 71 you've solved your medical issues and got back into chess, congrats to you my friend! Looking forward to more great conversations.

[@jeremaj7513]

Love your videos they are very helpful can you maybe do video about smith morra gambit? 🙂

[@TheChessGiant]

Thank you Jermaj! And yes! I will add the Smith Morra Gambit to the list, super fun chess opening for white against the Sicilian!

[@billi9230]

Nice video. So I was the Bird Opening Sturm Gambit guy. I now have a lot more experience and I found a good way to defeat the d4 pawn push from black too. Now its my most popular opening and in like 300 games idk a single guy played correct against me with 1. f4 d5 2. c4 d4 3. e4 (not taking en passent or I play d4 by myself and I have full control over the center) c5 4. d3 e5 ... The eval bar is at -1.4 but its not that lost cause there arent moves which get white into truble soon.

[@TheChessGiant]

Hey Billi, I remember you! Oh dang that is super interesting thanks for sharing. I mean ya if black doesn't use en passant then I personally (even with the evaluation) would rather take white. It's a much more comfortable position and we have full control of the center as you mentioned.

[@_xelua_]

a quick correction solomon .... in the line where you play Ne7 to go to F5, if white takes on c5 ... the theorytical move is not Qxc5.... rather you play Qc7 going for the central pawn because there is no real way for white to hold on to the pawn on c5 it will fall easily... and aslo by taking on c5 you are giving free tempo for white to expand in the queen side

[@TheChessGiant]

Thanks for sending this in! Could you send me a timestamp just so I know exactly where you're talking about? Thanks!

[@_xelua_]

@@TheChessGiant 2:45 ... idk about the computer line it might suggest Qxc5 , but Qc2 is considered as the theoritical move, thats what i was thought and that is what i play till the day, because we lack space in the opening because of the e5 pawn which has to be out primaty targer , the c5 pawn literally has no purpose what so ever ... its wandered in to the wrong part of town and will fall soon ...

[@mixedvibes9613]

what do i do in 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.nf3

[@lukewagner158]

take on d4

[@TheChessGiant]

A good option!

[@TheChessGiant]

You can continue to develope normally with Nc6 or capture on d4 and take out one of white's central pawns!

[@rickberglund2134]

3:20 I wish you elaborated on Qxb2 instead of instantly gxN. Exactly how does the queen get trapped, it appears Black would get compensation, but I’m just a C player.

[@nikhilr4525]

Can you do one on the Goldman variation of the Caro Kann or as Naroditsky calls it, the 'Naro Kann'? It's an astoundingly powerful weapon for white against the Caro Kann and relatively unknown. I don't think anyone's covered it apart from The Prophet himself. You could potentially put the Caro out of business

[@TheChessGiant]

I just wrote this down for videos I want to make as soon as possible. I've never heard of this but it sounds super interesting, I'll look into it and try to learn it! Thanks for the awesome chess opening recommendation. Always cool to learn something new.

[@nikhilr4525]

@@TheChessGiant A lot of titled players play this on online blitz. It's all the rage at the top top level but unknown below the 2000 level

[@TheChessGiant]

Ya it looks super interesting. Never thought of Qf3 as a move but I like the idea behind it! Definitely throws the Caro-Kann player off their game.

[@brianpatrick9473]

Why not take the pawn on B2 with the Queen when the knight on H6 is taken by the bishop? Your Queen will then force the knight to move. Then take the bishop. This blocks Blacks Queen.

[@TuxedoTalk]

I don't know if this counts as a gambit or not but at 3:20 I always just take the G pawn with my queen. I'm then threatening to capture the rook and they usually move their knight to defend with the queen. In some games I've ended up sacrificing the knight but getting the E, F and G pawns as compensation.

[@rui4659]

Thats what i thought too.. if you are after the base of whites pawn chain, that would destroy it faster

[@TheChessGiant]

Hey Josh, this almost works for black! In fact, much of the time it will if white doesn't know what to do. However, the reason Grandmasters don't go with Qxb2 is because of Be3 and after Qxa1 white has Qc2. Black is up material, but the queen is trapped. There's a few ways white can capture that queen, one of them being bringing that knight on f3 to d2 and then b3. Hope this helps!

[@TheChessGiant]

Hey Rui, this almost works for black! In fact, much of the time it will if white doesn't know what to do. However, the reason Grandmasters don't go with Qxb2 is because of Be3 and after Qxa1 white has Qc2. Black is up material, but the queen is trapped. There's a few ways white can capture that queen, one of them being bringing that knight on f3 to d2 and then b3. Hope this helps!

[@TuxedoTalk]

@@TheChessGiant Thank you. Learned something before I got caught lol

[@rui4659]

@@TheChessGiant thanks man! I knew something fishy was guding in the shadows... :) amazing channel!

[@ricardods6843]

u should really sell courses on chessly

[@TheChessGiant]

Ayy thanks Ricardo! Appreciate that man. Will be releasing my first course (independently) in the next couple of weeks hopefully!