Article: 3736 of rec.games.chess.analysis Newsgroups: rec.games.chess.analysis Path: info!dregis From: dregis@exeter.ac.uk (D.Regis) Subject: Re: French for Beginners Message-ID: Organization: University of Exeter, UK. References: <52nd4c$k6c@sanjuan.islandnet.com> <533hb5$sjf@mark.ucdavis.edu> Date: Wed, 9 Oct 1996 15:14:19 GMT In article <533hb5$sjf@mark.ucdavis.edu> kjbegley@chicken.engr.ucdavis.edu (Kevin James Begley) writes: >D.Regis (dregis@exeter.ac.uk) wrote: >: I think the French is a good transitional opening for players who >: don't have a marked attacking style. The basic ideas behind the >: French are not too sophisticated (unlike the Sicilian) and your pieces >: often come to similar squares in each variation, which is more than >: can be said for playing 1...e5. > >How can the "basic ideas" be "too sophisticated" ???? I find I can get across the ideas of the French easier than the Sicilian. The attack on the d4 Pawn is similar is several variations of the French, but the equivalent(?) in the Sicilian, the attack on e4, I think is much harder to handle. It's certainly harder for me to explain! Some of the fundamental ideas in the open Sicilian (minority attack against backward pawn on c2, restraint of Pawns on e4/f4) seem to me to place greater demands on a player than the French; moroever the range of variations of the French (with locked pawns on d4/e5 and d5/e6) are more similar than the range of more flexible formations that a Sicilian player might meet (Morra, Alapin, Closed, Grand Prix, King's Indian Attack). >: May your pieces harmonise with your Pawn structure and >: your sacrifices be sound in all variations > >May all your pawns reach an underpromotion. > > Kevin. May you win a your class prize at your next tournament, and may the book be "The Complete Book of Gambits" D From info!dregis Wed Oct 9 16:28:30 BST 1996