Let's play the french defense!
Let's learn the french defense! I've had ENOUGH of these pawn-e4 players. It's time we stopped them once and for all. So how do we do it? We start off the french with pawn to e6.
How do we continue the french defense?
After white takes the center with pawn to d4, we can enter the french defense. We IMMEDIATELY strike back in the center with pawn to d5.
Instead of trading pawns, white has left tension in the center. Let's BLOW UP the center with pawn to c5. This is going to be fun...
Like I said, our mission is to blow up the center. We'll do this by trading off the pawns. Pawn takes pawn on d4 first.
And now pawn takes pawn on e4.
Developing a piece with check is usually a good idea. Bishop to b4.
Aaaaaand finally white blundered. They forgot that their queen was the only defender of the d4 pawn. Queen takes pawn on d4.
We need to block check and defend the b4 bishop at the same time. Knight to c6 seems to do the job :)
Well done! We have a pawn up and white's knight is in trouble.
We've entered the french defense advanced variation. Basically, white wants to hang onto their central pawns. Well... we won't let them. Pawn to c5!
Dang, white REALLY doesn't want to lose their central pawns. Let's add another attacker to the d4 pawn with queen to b6.
Why not add yet ANOTHER attacker to the d4 pawn? Knight to c6!
Two steps: One, clean up a bit of tension in the center. Two, add an attacker to the d4 square. First, we clean up the tension with pawn takes pawn on d4.
OK, now as I promised, we'll add another attacker to the d4 pawn. We'll do this by rotating our g-knight all the way to f5. To get the g-knight to f5, first we play g-knight to e7.
White castled, and now we are literally just winning a pawn. Knight to f5 will win us the d4 pawn.
I guess white technically saved the d4 pawn, but they gave up the b2 pawn instead. Queen takes pawn on b2.
Time to get our king to safety too. Let's develop our bishop to e7 and prepare to castle.
French defense just won us a pawn! Woohoo!
After working all day for that d4 pawn, we finally win it. Knight on f5 takes pawn on d4 :)
We're a pawn up, BUT our king is in the center and our pieces are less developed. In times like this, if we CAN trade queens, it's best to trade queens. Queen takes knight on d4.
Very nice! Can't complain about a free pawn.
OK finally, it's time. It's time to grab that freaking d4 pawn. Pawn takes pawn on d4.
It might look like that pawn on d4 is free, but if we take it with our knight, white has a sneaky trick where he can check our king with bishop to b5. The only way to ACTUALLY threaten the pawn on d4 now is to block any checks to our king, which we can do with bishop to d7.
Sweet! Now we finally get our free pawn. Knight takes pawn on d4.
We have to capture back. Queen avenges our knight on d4.
We have a 1 point advantage, and the only way to keep it is to stop white's knight from getting to c7 and forking us. We can do that with pawn to a6.
Woohoo! We are up a free pawn :)
White is letting us give away a c-pawn for a central pawn - sounds like a good trade to me! Pawn takes pawn on d4.
Let's keep developing! Knight to e7 to prepare knight to f5 or g6 in the future. You'll notice in the french defense that we have to be creative with developing our kingside knight, because white's e5 pawn typically blocks the regular f6 square.
Let's develop our other knight while we're at it. Knight to c6.
Let's unpin our king. Bishop to d7!
Well done! We are almost done developing and have 2 central pawns to white's 1.