A Classical Guide to the French Defence + French Powerbook 2021 and French Powerbase 2021

This DVD gives you the key to start out with the French Defence. GM Yannick Pelletier is a specialist of this opening, and believes that the most efficient way to understand its ideas, plans, and typical structures is to study classical lines. He offers you a repertoire that is based on well-established lines that have been tried and tested for decades and that have proven their validity. He illustrates these lines with thematic games. This is an interactive DVD. At key moments, Grandmaster Pelletier pauses and asks you to find and play the best move. He then gives feedback to your chosen moves. The database with illustrative games will also help you to understand and play the French better. The author has selected all games in the database carefully and annotated most of them.

• Video running time: 4 h 27 min(English)
• With interactive training incuding video feedback
• Extra: Database with annotated model games
• Including CB Reader

French Defence Powerbase 2021

The 644 selected annotated games offer excellent study materials. Top players such as Carlsen (2 annotated games), Caruana (5), Anand (4), So (2), Radjabov (2), Karjakin (1), Harikrishna (1), Navara (1), Vitiugov (2) analysed their games, plus French experts like Marin (46), Edouard (30), Sadorra (28), Atalik (23) and Berg (23). All in all, there are 9.839 such games and they do have a rating-average of at least 2570 (the annotated games not included).

The database loads the list of games. Double-clicking loads the selected game. The player tab sorts the games by frequency. This helps to take a closer look at games from players such as Adams (an expert for White) or Meier, Kortschnoj, and Volkov.

You can play through the games, and study them with an engine or a powerbook.

French Defence Powerbook 2021

For the French Powerbook top-quality material was used: 80,000 games from the Mega and from correspondence chess, plus 637,000 games from the playchess.com engine room. The statistics in the Winawer, particularly in the sharp line 7.Qg4 Qc7, are hardly appealing for Black, and they help to understand why the top players use this set-up only very rarely. In huge contrast to the Steinitz Variation 3.Nc3 Nf6. E.g. the line 4.e5 Nfd7 5.f4 c5 6.Nf3 Nc6 7.Be3 which currently is the most popular continuation for both sides

Here 7...cxd4 is still the most popular move but there is a trend to play 7...Be7 and particularly 7...a6 – which is already the most often played move in the online database.

In the Steinitz Variation White has only a few promising alternatives but Black has a number of good options to deviate. For instance with 7...a6 8.Qd2 Be7 9.Be2 b5 10.0-0 0-0. The statistics in the Powerbook for this line are based on almost 24,000 games while the online database has less than a 1,000 games with this variation.