A closer look.... the French Defense

(White to Move)

The French Defense has never impressed me. I fair well against it, though I have spent almost zero percent of my fledgling chess career (if one dares calling my chess that!) studying it. Still, I have noticed that most of my games have ended up in the position above. (1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 c5 4. c3 Nc6 5. Nf3 Qb6). Thus, I guess it is time to look it over.

The position is entirely "text book" (a welcome surprise since I tend to deviate away from chess opening theory after the third move if I don't know the opening by heart!). It's only with my 6th move that I ended up veering away from the text books.

(6. Qb3?!)

This is my usual reply. It doesn't seem like a terrible move to me. But, indeed, it is uncommon. Of the 1227 games I have that starts with the position in diagram one, 6. Qb3 has been played only once. Only upon reviewing my games, did I realize how often I played this obscure move.

(Whether the move is good or bad, I'll let the reader decide. I played with the hope of 6... Qxb3 with the obvious 7. axb3 to follow. I didn't mind the doubled pawns and actually liked the open a-file. So, I wonder if there is some major problem with it that I am missing.)

(6. a3)

This is the "text book move" that I am now adopting. This is not only the most popular 6th move of the 1227 games, it also produced the highest win average. I, personally, have never played it before. However, it definitely is sound... and popular.

All the "cool kids" are jumping over the cliff.... guess I'll join them!