Exeter Chess Club: Steve Martinson on French Defence

GENERAL: tries to maintain d4/e5 with c2-c3 and f2-f4 as support; attack usually on the King's-side; can maintain a big space advantage and openly develop; ADVANCE: causes unnatural development, not aggressive but hopes to cramp Black; EXCHANGE: drawish, no advantage likely; CLASSICAL: difficulty in holding Pawn center; MACCUTCHEON: strong position but watch out for possible pawn push on castled King's-side; WINAWER: will attack on the King's-side, try to block Black Pawns on light squares (where there is no Bishop to defend the dark squares); consider f2-f4, g2-g4-g5 and f4-f5; Queen may come out early; sharp play for both sides; TARRASCH: avoids ...Bb4 pin and allows c-Pawn to protect d4; eventually plan to post a piece on d-file to block the Black isolated d-Pawn

Goals for Black:

GENERAL: must attck with c5 (and not play ...c5-c4); do not play ...Nc6 before ...c5; difficulty developing QB; frequently does not castle and when castling occurs, it is as likely to be ...O-O-O as ...O-O; ADVANCE: want to counterattck quickly with good development; EXCHANGE: development without problems; CLASSICAL: must be able to defend "unprotected" castled King; MACCUTCHEON: seldom castles, difficult to develop efficiently; WINAWER: seldom castles because ...c5 weakens the Queen's-side and White has a strong King's-side attack, chances are on the c-file; TARRASCH: will end up with an isolated d-Pawn which is best used as a post anchor or to apply pressure, development seldom a problem, positional in nature -- revolves around isolated d-Pawn; if White attacks it better and Black is better