I’ve gone through two phases where I played the French Defense. The first was early in my career when I fell in love with the Burn Variation (1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 dxe4 5.Nxe4 Be7 6.Bxf6 gxf6 – give me those two Bishops!). I scored pretty well but, eventually, decided that the French sucked and went back to my beloved Sicilian Accelerated Dragon. Many years later (during a particularly depressive period of my life) I decided to give the French another whirl and this time got slaughtered almost every time I wheeled the blasted thing out. Why would I play an opening that I clearly had no affinity for? Because, as White, I feared the French! In much the same way that Fischer always had trouble with it, I found myself constantly struggling to get even a tiny edge after 1.e4 e6. Thus, my “can’t beat it so join it” mentality makes a certain pathetic sense.

Fortunately, I eventually wised up and tossed 1.e4 in the garbage in favor of 1.d4. Happy years followed. No more French Defenses, and no more bouts of insanity where I decided to use it for Black. Then John Watson, high priest of the French Defense, and I became good friends and my life has been hell ever since. Here is just a snippet of countless phone conversations between John and myself: “Jeremy, the French is clearly Black’s best answer to 1.e4.” “Jeremy, why are you playing that gutless Accelerated Dragon when you could switch the far more manly French?” “Jeremy, look at my latest brilliant win with the French.” “Jeremy you baboon! White gets nothing against the French. Nothing!”

The fact is the French Defense isn’t for everyone. It’s a sharp, difficult, fighting opening that calls for a love of closed centers and bravery in the face of a kingside attack. While something like the Caro-Kann is easier to learn and safer (thus appealing to the “slow and easy” type of player who wants to deal with minimal memorization), the French wages outright warfare over the entire board, calls for stronger nerves, and demands a soul that finds joy whenever the lust for battle is stoked. In other words, Watson is right: it’s a damn good opening!

How does one go about learning such a detailed opening system? Everyman Chess thinks the answer to this conundrum lies in their “STARTING OUT” series, a concept where many full games are given, concepts for both sides are offered up, and tips, notes, and warnings are strategically placed to ensure you get a feel for the inner workings of the system you’re trying to master.

In general, these books are indeed useful study tools. However, it’s not a series concept that breeds success – what really makes a book rise or fall is the author. Thus, while Joe Gallagher’s STARTING OUT: THE KING’S INDIAN was highly recommended (click HERE for Silman’s review of that book), Byron Jacobs’ STARTING OUT: THE FRENCH doesn’t make the grade.

When someone tries to sell you something, the first thing that must be done is to make the product (in this case the French Defense) desirable. Two games are given in the introduction to STARTING OUT: THE FRENCH; neither is a French, but both show typical French structures. In both cases, Black loses horribly. The trend to show devastating Black losses continues throughout the book, and even Black’s victories don’t inspire confidence in the French “buyer.”

What’s far more disturbing is the scarcity of tips, notes, and warnings that make this series so useful for the under 2000 player. Jacobs starts out with a few (though still not nearly enough) at the beginning, but these gradually fade into rarities as the pages flow by (it’s almost like the author was losing interest).

Though many of the games are indeed quite interesting or even beautiful, the author fails to give us French hopefuls any real positional insight or true guidance. Line after line is tossed our way, but nobody tells us what to use and what to pass by.

Overall, STARTING OUT: THE FRENCH might prove useful to some players who already know something about the French. But its lack of energy, lack of detailed instruction, and lack of guidance makes it one of the weakest in this series.

Other STARTING OUT books we’ve reviewed on this site are STARTING OUT: THE CARO-KANN (click HERE for Silman’s review) and STARTING OUT: THE QUEEN’S GAMBIT (click HERE for Donaldson’s review). Both were well received and, overall, jeremysilman.com is high on this series. STARTING OUT: THE FRENCH is the first lemon in the basket.

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