Chess Opening Theory/1. e4/1...e6/2. d4/2...d5/3. Nd2/3...Nf6/4. e5/4...Nfd7/5. Bd3/5...c5/6. c3/6...Nc6

Closed Tarrasch C05 French defence → Tarrasch → Closed Tarrasch → 6. c3 6...Nc6 Black mounts an attack on the d4 pawn. Currently, they attack it with their c-pawn and their knight on c6, and they can bring another attacker with ...Qb6 should they choose. White has two main options depending on how they configure their knights, depending on whether they wish to defend the pawn or not. 7. Ngf3, sometimes called the Korchnoi gambite.g. WGM Raluca Sgircea, IM Renier Castellanos (2015). Crushing French Defense – The Korchnoi Gambit. TheChessWorld.com or universal systemAttacking Chess: The French Williams Simon Everyman 2011 9781857446463 260-286, adds a defender to the pawn, but means that after 7...Qb6 White cannot bring another defender and the d-pawn is lost. It transpires that this gambit is sound: the continuation is 8. O-O cxd4 9. cxd4 Nxd4 10. Nxd4 Qxd4 11. Nf3 (defends e5 and allows White's queen to defend d3) Qb6, whereupon the choices are 12. Qa4, from where the queen may swing over to the kingside, 12. Qc2, or 12. a3. 7. Ne2 is the main line and traditional way to play. This develops the knight to defend d4 while keeping f3 open for the queen's knight, so if 7...Qb6 8. Nf3 cxd4 9. cxd4 there is no net loss of material. Black's usual plan is to attack the end of the pawn chain with ...f6. The main continuation is 7...cxd4 8. cxd4 f6 9. exf6 Nxf6. A final option to defend d4 is 7. Nef3. If 7...Qb6!? 8. Ne2 the line transposes to the 7. Ne2 Qb6!? 8. Nf3 move order. The difference comes after 7...cxd4 8. cxd4 f6 9. exf6 Nxf6, where White has the choice of 10. Ne2 to transpose to the main line or 10. Nh3!?. Theory table References See also