#chess #frenchdefense #steiner #steinervariation
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Do you like playing against the French Defense? I certainly don’t! As a (1. e4) player, the French Defence (1… e6) is my Achilles’ heel. When I look at my stats, I lose against the French Defense around 55-60% of the time! Indeed, one of my insights in my 2023 Year In Review (adventuresofachessnoob.com/20...) was to learn a more effective response to the French Defense. Historically, I tended to enter the French Defense Main Line (2. Nf6) because I didn’t like the Advance Variation with (2… e5), which closes the centre immediately. However, this results in playing INTO the French Defense player’s comfort zone. I thought about the Exchange Variation with (2… exd5), but Black just seems to be better in that position.
So recently, I decided to have a closer look at the Lichess community database, and I asked myself the question - do I need to play (2. d4) at all? Clearly, this is allowing the French Defense player to call the shots. And this is where I found something very interesting! There are over 300 million games of the French Defense on Lichess, and overall, White and Black are equal winning at 48% vs 48%. However, there are two uncommon responses for White that clearly perform better than all the others. The first is the Steiner Variation (2. c4) occurring in 2% of French games, with a win ratio of 51% vs 45%. The second is the Chigorin Variation (2. Qe2) occurring in less than 0.5% games, with a win ratio of 53% vs 43%!
As I was already slightly familiar with the Steiner Variation, having previously had a brilliant quick win submitted from a subscriber (adventuresofachessnoob.com/?p...) and liking the feel of the line. So, I have decided to try this first!
And looking at my very limited number of Steiner Variation games (four!), it has been my most successful response to the French as I’ve won 3 of them! This might be a fluke, but I want to learn more, and this could even become my standard approach!
Let’s have a look at two very recent games down a specific line that I really like: (1. e4 e6 2. c4 d5 3. cxd5 exd5 4. Qa4+!?). Now, Stockfish doesn’t like this queen check at all, giving it an evaluation of [-1.1]. However, it’s one of the most winning lines against the French Defense on Lichess - with White winning 54% vs Black 42%. Moreover, this might be the OG Steiner line!
4 май 2024
