Decide if the French stays
You have played 1 French game in 90 days. Either commit to it again with a clear Exchange plan or drop it, because a half-remembered French at 47.3% is the worst of both.
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French Defense
Solid French, fine positions, and the same unhurried collapse around move 20.
Score47%−2% vs your average
Win chance after move 1251%−1% vs your average
Blunders per game1.37+0.15 vs your average
Clock left at move 102:45+6s vs your average
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dcba1. e4 e6 2. Nf3 d5 3. exd5 exd5
What it says about you
1...e6 shows a player who wants structure and counterplay rather than an open tactical fight from move one. You are happy to let White have space and hit back later. Your records also show that most opponents answer with 2.Nf3 and the Exchange, so you often end up in symmetrical positions where nobody is setting the problems.
How you play it
Your openings are fine: a win chance of 50.6 at move 12 and 53.7 at move 20, roughly in line with your baselines. You have 165s left at move 10, which is quick. The Exchange line (1.e4 e6 2.Nf3 d5 3.exd5 exd5) is 115 of 297 games and scores 49.1%. The Knight Variation scores 36.8% over 19 games and the Advance Paulsen lines about 36-43%. You score 47.3% overall with 1.37 blunders per game against your 1.22 baseline. You have also dropped this defence almost completely, with only 1 game in the last 90 days.
Last 90 days: 1 games, 100% score.
What you're missing
- 01
You blunder more than usual here: 1.37 per game against 1.22, and 0.53 errors per game before move 15. Missed tactics (27 losses) and hung pieces (26) lead the loss causes.
- 02
79 of your 150 losses were timeouts. Symmetrical Exchange structures are long grinds where you run the clock down before anything happens.
- 03
You drift when ahead. Recently at moves 13-14 you played ...h6 and ...Nbd7 while the engine wanted ...Qe5 both times, and an 81-83% position became 54-58%. Quiet developing moves when there is a forcing idea on the board cost you.
- 04
Knights on d6 keep coming up. At move 19 ...c6 instead of ...Nd6 walked into a fork, and at move 26 ...Rb8 instead of ...Nd6 hung the knight with 15s left.
How to improve it
- 01
In the Exchange French, do not copy White's moves. Play ...Bd6, ...Ne7, ...O-O, ...Bf5 or ...Bg4, and ...Re8 so your pieces take the e-file first. Castling long with ...Qd7 and pushing the kingside pawns is a legitimate way to unbalance it in blitz.
- 02
Against the Advance (3.e5), use the standard ...c5, ...Nc6, ...Qb6 pressure on d4. If White plays the Paulsen with Nf3 and Bd3, remember that ...cxd4, ...Bd7 and ...Nge7-f5 targets d4 and wins time.
- 03
When your queen can centralise with tempo (such as ...Qe5 hitting something), check it before making a slow move like ...h6. It is the one pattern your recent games keep missing.
- 04
Before every knight move in the middlegame, spend one second asking what it defends. Both of your d6 misses came from knights that should have gone back to guard key squares.
Where it goes wrong
Your losses in this opening, by where and how the decisive mistake happened.
Phase of the decisive mistake
What the mistake was
Variations you reach
| Exchange Variation | 115 | 49% |
| Main line | 34 | 56% |
| Knight Variation | 19 | 37% |
| Advance Variation | 17 | 50% |
| Advance Paulsen Euwe Variation | 7 | 36% |
| Advance Paulsen Attack | 7 | 43% |
Winning positions converted here: 59% (124 of 209).
Recent mistakes in this opening
Your move in red, Stockfish's in black.
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567
h8
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a
vs vsa0910 (1484) · 09-08-26 →
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67
h8g
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vs vsa0910 (1484) · 09-08-26 →
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23
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7h8
gf
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bavs munny69420 (1396) · 08-06-26 →
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45
67
h8
gf
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c
bavs munny69420 (1396) · 08-06-26 →
Next steps
Learn an anti-Exchange setup
Pick ...Bd6, ...Ne7, ...Bf5, ...Qd7 and O-O-O and play it in 10 games. 115 of your games reach this line, so an edge here pays off quickly.
Play forcing moves before slow ones
When you are ahead, list checks, captures, threats and queen centralisations before quiet moves. Your ...h6 and ...Nbd7 slips cost 25 points each.
Drill it
Puzzles built from your own mistakes in the French Defense, and every game you've played in it.