The Complete French Advance

Book excerpt: The Advance Variation is the most ambitious way to meet the solid French Defence. Its popularity among club players is not difficult to understand: by advancing the e-pawn to e5 on the third move, White not only gains space but also blocks in Black’s c8 Bishop and hampers Black’s kingside development by taking away the f6-square. The closed nature of the positions arising from the Advance Variation leads to strategic play where positional understanding is much more important than studying the latest theoretical developments. White can use the advantage in space by building up an attack against the Black king. Grandmaster Evgeny Sveshnikov has played the Advance Variation in countless games with excellent results and is, as former World Champion Anatoly Karpov puts it, ‘the world expert’ in this variation. Together with his son, International Master Vladimir Sveshnikov, he has thoroughly updated and expanded his earlier investigations that he presented in his first book on the French Advance in 2003. The Sveshnikovs know that when you are teaching new patterns it is much more productive to use illustrative games than to show stand-alone, concrete variations. That is why they present many annotated grandmaster games in which they clearly explain the ideas and plans for both sides. They also provide exercises and test positions in order to reinforce what has been learned. After reading and studying this book, White players, from amateurs to Grandmasters, will make their opponents’ lives even more difficult.