This course examines the French Defence Tarrasch Variation (3.Nd2), focusing on the pawn structure that arises after 3...c5 4.exd5 exd5 and the subsequent dxc5, leaving Black with an isolated queen's pawn on d5. It explores the dynamic middlegame potential of this structure alongside its endgame implications, and covers the principal sidelines where White carries the isolated pawn instead.
The first volume of a new six-month project, and it begins where the French itself begins: the Advance Variation and the archetypal pawn chain of d4 and e5 against d5 and e6, from which almost every strategic idea in the opening can be traced — the ...c5 break at the base, the pressure on d4 with ...Qb6 and ...Nc6, and the long-standing question of the light-squared bishop. GM Grigor Grigorov devotes two full lectures to the structure itself before any concrete line, then turns to the closed positions after 6.a3 c4 and the sharp gambit lines after 6.Bd3 cxd4. Theory is kept intentionally light — the aim is to enter the middlegame knowing what you are playing for, not to memorise sequences.
Interactive Tests
