Dynamite 1.e4 Advance French for White PGN Only Chessable Mar 27, 2025

Hitting a Wall against the French Defense?
Blow It Open with Dynamite!

Looking for a fun, aggressive option against the French Defense, but don’t want to get bogged down with the theory of 3.Nc3 or the Tarrasch? Light the fuse in the Advance Variation!

Chessable community author gonfreecss shows you how, with another one of his unorthodox yet viciously effective opening repertoires. Following the success of his course against 1…e5, the author moves on to tackle the popular French Defense.

His weapon of choice? The simple yet effective Advance Variation, with a little twist – 6.Na3!

Starting position of the main line, after 1.e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 c5 4. Nf3 Nc6 5. c3 Qb6 6. Na3

It might look a little crazy – after all, what if Black plays …cxd4 then …Bxa3, ruining your pawn structure? Indeed that’s the main move.

But you’re going to welcome it with open arms! Because you’ll use the open b- and c-files in Benko Gambit fashion to launch some wild attacking ideas, such as:

A queen chase and infiltration of the queenside

Rook lifts heading over to the kingside

Tying up the queenside for free moves on the kingside

Among others. But even if Black doesn’t ‘play ball’ and capture our knight on a3, there is plenty more fun to be had. In many variations, the very d4 pawn that the French Defense is determined to undermine is poison!

Good luck to Black defending with …Bc5, because b4! stops that idea

The best part? Black tries to take that pawn in about 60% of cases!

Light on Theory, Strong in Practice, and Explosively Fun

But as a complete repertoire against the French, you’ll be covered against all the main tries Black can throw at you – including early deviations. Best of all, you’ll get an entire chapter on common middlegame themes and plans. You’ll learn where just about every piece in your army can go and what it can do!

Learn how the a3 knight made it to e3 – and will probably make it to h6 or f6 before long!

It’s part of the author’s commitment to giving you the tools to think on your feet, no matter what Black plays. You’ll also get plenty of model games showing you how strong players have taken these ideas and converted them into wins. And as you’ll find, White scores great in this variation!

So to sum up, you’re getting:

♞ A complete repertoire for White against the French Defense in just 85 trainable variations
♞ A Quickstarter chapter with the most critical lines, so you can start playing right away
♞ A complete chapter on middlegame themes and attacking ideas
♞ Model games showing how it works in practice