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French Defence Books
Reviews of Books on the French Defence
There have been many books written on the French Defence and so, to help you to choose which one might be right for you, I have reviewed those I have come across.
"Play the French" by John Watson
This book is intended as a repertoire book for Black and so is not comprehensive. It is now in its third edition which has been out for about six months as I write this. Watson has an excellent reputation as a writer and is undoubtedly an expert on the French Defence. This book is very thorough and is probably the best guide for black available in this opening. Arguably the decision to cast off the 3. ... Nf6 line against the Tarrasch (which was covered in the second edition) and to replace it with 3. ... Be7 is the one significant weakness of the newest edition of this book.
9/10
PTF3 at Amazon
"The Complete French" by Lev Psakhis
As the title suggests this book is intended to provide comprehensive coverage of the opening. The material is packed very densely and Psakhis' habit of building a great deal of analysis and large number of game references into a single game makes the book a little less accessible. Psakhis seems to me to use the "!?" assessment more liberally than most of the authors I'm familiar with and this can be a little disconcerting at first (for example, 3. ... Nf6 against the Tarrasch and both 6. Qg4 and 6. b4 against the 5. ... Ba5 variation of the Winawer get a "!?"). Psakhis is, however, a French Defence veteran, and his extensive knowledge of the opening is clearly in evidence in this excellent book. Its only weakness is that it is now a little dated.
8/10
TCF at Amazon
"Mastering the French" by Neil McDonald and Andrew Harley
This is one of a series of 'Mastering the ...' books which came out a few years ago. The material in the books is arranged by pawn structure instead of by opening moves so that this is something of a strategic introduction to (or primer on) the opening rather than a theory-laden reference work. The coverage of variations is, as you would expect, not complete, but this shouldn't worry the reader unduly. The book is ideal for someone fairly new to the opening who is not yet familiar with the typical strategies involved in playing it well. I would suggest that if you want to play the French Defence regularly you should consider this only as a second book on the French as it is not quite comprehensive and detailed enough to work as a stand-alone repertoire provider.
7/10
MTF at Amazon
"The French Defence" by Alexei Suetin
This book is really quite old now (most of the material dates back to 1982) but it still provides reasonably good coverage of the opening. The book is very enjoyable to read and the assessments are generally still in line with modern theory though there are one or two slightly odd conclusions drawn about some side-lines. The problem with this book is that though it does what it does fairly well it doesn't do it quite as well as some of the other reference works available. I would suggest that it has simply been superseded by Psakhis' 'The Complete French'.
6/10
TFD at Amazon
"Winning with the French" by Wolfgang Uhlmann
Uhlmann is a French Defence loyalist and has played the opening for what seems like forever. He knows it inside out and in this book he annotates a collection of his own best French Defence games. Uhlmann's style is aggressive to say the least, but he is more than just another 'hacker' (!) - his deep understanding of the opening is apparent in both his play and his analysis. Being a collection of his own games the book covers only the lines he has actually played himself, so if he doesn't play a certain line, or if he has simply never had the opportunity to play a certain line, it won't be in the book. This makes the book unsuitable both as a repertoire book and as a reference work. The games are great to play through and you cannot help but learn from studying them, but, as with MacDonald and Harley's 'Mastering the French' this work is not enough, on its own, to provide you with a complete repertoire.
7/10
WWTF at Amazon
"How to play the French Defence" by Shaun Taulbut
This book has the feel of something which was thrown together rather quickly. The analysis isn't very deep and some of the chapters are very thin on material. However, the result is a book which is ideal for juniors or people who are under 1600 elo and want to play the French Defence. The book will do rather a good job of introducing this opening to such players, not only giving them a good idea of the 'lay of the land' as far as the theory is concerned, but also giving them a few typical plans and strategies to be going along with. Taulbut is a strong enough player to give sensible advice and fairly reliable assessments so I would suggest that a cheap second-hand copy of this book would be a good investment for someone interested in taking up this opening.
6/10
HTPTFD at Amazon
"New Ideas In The French Defence" by Nigel Short
Nigel Short challenged Kaparov for the world championship in 1993. Though he lost, the fact that he made it through the qualification competition (beating ex world champ Karpov on the way) shows that he is a classy player. The book is intended to assess various ideas which were new at the time at which the book was published. Unfortunately it was published in 1990. On the one hand it might be argued that the book is now only of historical interest. On the other, Short's assessments and chapter introductions are still valuable and mostly unaffected by modern theory. Short focuses almost exclusively on the main lines; the exchange variation and other odds and ends are covered in just over a page. The assessments are mostly in the form of symbols but they are still interesting. I like the book, though I don't think it could really be called 'useful'. It's interesting, but it's not really going to make you a better player.
5/10
NIITFD at Amazon
"Tactics in the French" by Gennardy Nesis
This book gives examples of typical tactical motifs in the French Defence. The material is arranged by tactical theme rather than by variation. It's an enjoyable read and the Author, as a correspondence Grandmaster, is the sort of person ideally suited to writing a book like this. The book will sharpen your tactics and give you some useful ideas, but its lack of focus on the opening moves makes it suitable as a second or third book on the French, not as an introduction, repertoire book, or reference work.
6/10
TITF at Amazon
"The French Winawer" by Neil McDonald
This is a reference work on the Winawer variation. It's quite good at explaining the ideas behind the moves but it lacks the detail you might expect from a book covering such specific subject matter. I also felt that McDonald's assessments of Black's prospects in this opening were a little over-optimistic in places. Overall it's a good book, but probably not quite as good as the Winawer volume of Psakhis' recent four volume series on the French.
7/10
TFW at Amazon
"The Main Line French: 3 Nc3" by Steffen Pedersen
I suspect that this is the sort of book which is much more useful to White than to Black. How many players have more than one or two lines against 3. Nc3? Not many I would guess. That means that only about a third of the book will be relevant to French Defenders. White on the other hand must be ready to face all of Black's possible replies to 3. Nc3 and so will need to study a much larger proportion of the text. Parts of the book are excellent. The section on the Rubinstein variation for example is superb. Some of the other sections are a bit weaker, but are certainly still sound. As I said, this book is probably more useful for players with the White pieces.
8/10
TMF 3.Nc3 at Amazon
"The French Tarrasch" by John Emms
This is a very high quality book, just like Emms' other efforts. He provides quite detailed coverage of the most important variations but I felt that the book was a bit light on the less popular lines and early deviations. Emms excels at explaining key themes and the chapter summaries are very useful. Perhaps some of the analysis of the sharper variations needs re-checking in light of recent developments but I have quite a lot of confidence in Emms as an analyst.
8/10
TFT at Amazon
"New Moves in the French Winawer" by Bogdan Lalic
Let's face it; this is essentially a database dump. The analysis is minimal and only in the form of symbols. In fact the book itself is minimal with less than forty pages of actual chess. Playing through the games might be useful but you could probably find the games on the web yourself from somewhere like Chesslab or Chessbase. What you are paying for then is Lalic's assessments. They're fine as far as I can see, but not particularly revealing. There's only so much you can say with '!', '?' '+' '=' and '-'.
4/10
Limited availability. ISBN: 1 85932 080 5
"Trends in the French Winawer Volume 2" by Vlado Kovacevic
You guessed it; this is another database dump and also 'weighs' in at about fourty pages. As with Lalic's effort the analysis in the games is entirely symbol based. However, unlike Lalic's effort, Kovacevic provides verbal chapter introductions. These are very welcome, though a bit short. It's better than the 'New Moves' book but still lacking in depth and explanation.
5/10
Limited availability. No ISBN.
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