I'm not even lumping KIA into this category, but seems like everyone second game is an Exchange, wing gambit or something even more off the wall
At a guess, because it's strong enough that it's scary to play into a mainline without any preparation, but also rare enough that the effort of having preparation isn't worth it for a lot of people.
It's the third most common defense to e4, hardly rare
I've had some games against the french recently, and most people play pretty well. most often it's a declined.
@GrandLapin said in #3:
> It's the third most common defense to e4, hardly rare
For an e4 player, that's still something like 5th at best on your priority list for opening study (after white vs e5, white vs c5, black vs e4, black vs d4). If you don't want to spend a lot of time on openings, it's tempting to pick something "non-theoretical" and hope for the best...
> It's the third most common defense to e4, hardly rare
For an e4 player, that's still something like 5th at best on your priority list for opening study (after white vs e5, white vs c5, black vs e4, black vs d4). If you don't want to spend a lot of time on openings, it's tempting to pick something "non-theoretical" and hope for the best...
@GrandLapin said in #1:
> I'm not even lumping KIA into this category, but seems like everyone second game is an Exchange, wing gambit or something even more off the wall
Mostly because I have a 60% win rate with the Orthoschnapp gambit.
@GrandLapin said in #3:
> It's the third most common defense to e4, hardly rare
Still only 10% of e4 games, at least at my level, so learning mainline theory isn't a priority for me right now.
> I'm not even lumping KIA into this category, but seems like everyone second game is an Exchange, wing gambit or something even more off the wall
Mostly because I have a 60% win rate with the Orthoschnapp gambit.
@GrandLapin said in #3:
> It's the third most common defense to e4, hardly rare
Still only 10% of e4 games, at least at my level, so learning mainline theory isn't a priority for me right now.
The Exchange is off the wall?
Stockfish loves exd5 exd5 ... Nf3 then c4 ... So we are learning to understand WHY
French should be close to 1/8 of e4 games in master play. The exchange is a cheesy line. And 5.c4 only works well against 4. Bd6, although black must also be wary of c4 if the symmetry is maintained too long in the main line
@GrandLapin You won alot of games there I think 4 ( One was messed up but u won ... missed mate in 4 plus a white shot there) against the Exchange variation . However you played 3 Bd3 as white vs the French which is preety much 0.0 ... By the way in tournaments rated 3 bd3 was played against me once & even a gambit 3 Be3 . Preaching everyone should play 3 Nc3 3 Nd2 or 3 e5 & not sidelines when you play a sideline heh' . It's not all the opening ... You outplayed that FM for instance in the Middlegame
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