If you find yourself in this position as black, then you have started your French defense!
Is the French defense good for beginners?
For the ones who’s very new at the game, it can be a bit rough. But with that said, you don’t need to be a higher rated player in order to learn this defense and execute it fairly well in your games in order to get the upper hand against your opponent.
Pro’s of using the French defense
- It gives you a good structure of your pieces early on in the game.
- It gives you the opportunity to make some great counter attacking moves if your opponent gives you an opening
- It doesn’t really contain any fancy moves which is hard to calculate in what the good moves in certain situations are.
Cons of using the French defense
- You don’t develop as many pieces as the opposing player.
- Your light squared bishop will be locked in
- You are quite passive early on.
What is the point of the French Defense?
As previously mentioned with the pro’s and cons. The strategy is mostly based on taking advantage of the opponents mistakes. You sit back and let the opponent do the attacking move and you force them to make the decisions regarding they want to capture/trade pieces.
