{"id":3849,"date":"2026-07-05T11:05:34","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T15:05:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chessinthelibrary.com\/?p=3849"},"modified":"2026-07-05T11:06:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T15:06:19","slug":"march-to-victory-with-the-advance-french-1-key-ideas-duplicate-3770","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chessinthelibrary.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/05\/march-to-victory-with-the-advance-french-1-key-ideas-duplicate-3770\/","title":{"rendered":"March to Victory with the Advance French #2 &#8211; Basic Theory"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"3849\" class=\"elementor elementor-3849\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-4700b505 e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"4700b505\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-e-type=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-1b0fd344 e-con-full e-flex e-con e-child\" data-id=\"1b0fd344\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-e-type=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-731861b1 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"731861b1\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h1><b>Introduction<\/b><\/h1><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For many chess players, Theory wears the costume of some kind of cartoon villain. Probably with a maniacal cackle, He steals our precious chess hours, reducing learning to memorization. But I don\u2019t think it should be this way! Like theories in science \u2013 the theory of gravity, for example \u2013 they should be a basis for our opening improvement. Something to keep us <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">grounded <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">but still let us explore.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now that we know some basic Advance French concepts, the theory is (ironically) where we\u2019ll see them in action. As you read and follow along on a board, don\u2019t commit everything to memory, but bring your magnifying glass to spot our key ideas.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Let\u2019s get off the ground!<\/span><\/p><h1><b>Basic Theory<\/b><\/h1><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We\u2019ve already learned the first few moves of the Advance French. We open with <\/span><b>1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. The battle turns to the d4-pawn after <\/span><b>3&#8230;c5 4.c3 Nc6 5.Nf3<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Nothing groundbreaking yet, but now Black is at a tabiya \u2013 a position with a few different theoretical routes. We\u2019ll go over the three most common.<\/span><\/p><h3><b>The Slick 5&#8230;Nge7<\/b><\/h3><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Recall the key idea of the d4-pawn battle. Black plays <\/span><b>5&#8230;Nge7<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to maneuver the knight to f5, with the end goal of pressuring d4 as usual. But now you\u2019ll learn how to hold your ground and stop this scheme forever. Just capture the knight on f5! That\u2019s why we play <\/span><b>6.Bd3<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p><p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/lichess.org\/study\/embed\/C3h75Q9f\/X5ecmbYc\" width=\"600\" height=\"371\" frameborder=\"0\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Black takes our pawn before playing the knight to f5: <\/span><b>6&#8230;cxd4 7.cxd4 Nf5<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. If Black forgets this move order and plays &#8230;Nf5 straightaway, dxc5 gives a comfortable position. See the diagram sideline.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">See that 7&#8230;Nf5 here is nearly forced as the knight on e7 traps in its own bishop. It must move, and doesn\u2019t have anywhere better to go \u2013 remember &#8230;Ng6 almost always runs into an emboldened h4!. As planned, we immediately assassinate this knight by playing <\/span><b>8.Bxf5 exf5<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This trade gives Black the bishop pair. In return, we get rid of the strong knight and wreck Black\u2019s pawn structure. As the dust settles, we just develop with <\/span><b>9.Nc3<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p><p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/lichess.org\/study\/embed\/C3h75Q9f\/tDnoYQHU\" width=\"600\" height=\"371\" frameborder=\"0\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Black has to defend his d5-pawn from our Nc3-Qb3 plan, so he follows up with <\/span><b>9&#8230;Be6<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. It\u2019s a very effective idea \u2013 we\u2019re not getting that pawn anytime soon \u2013 but it leaves Black with a \u201ctall-pawn\u201d on e6. A tall-pawn is a rude nickname for a bishop so useless it may as well be a pawn. Make sure to unleash that obscenity on your opponents.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The line\u2019s final move prepares the ground for the middlegame: <\/span><b>10.h4!<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A few ideas behind this: we obviously want to take space on the kingside, and do so in a way that isn\u2019t significantly weakening. This pawn advance also stops the &#8230;h6-g5 plan for Black. Moreover, we unlock the surprising plan of Rh1-h3-g3. The rook lift pressures g7 \u2013 this hinders kingside castling and can tie down the f8-bishop to defense.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That\u2019s the end of our theory. Later, we generally play the maneuver Ke1-f1-g1. The artificial castling safeguards our king while leaving us open to kingside rook lifts. We can play Nc3-e2-f4 to give this knight more influence over the game. Black usually castles queenside, but fret not because we can push our queenside pawns to attack over there too! And, too bad for us theory nerds, a chess game is played, albeit a chess game you have a ~60% chance of winning.<\/span><\/p><h3><b>The Quiet 5&#8230;Bd7<\/b><\/h3><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Another option for Black in the earlier tabiya is the simple developing move <\/span><b>5&#8230;Bd7<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Black gets his infamous prisoner, the French bishop, off its starting square, and prepares Rc8. As before, we continue natural development with <\/span><b>6.Bd3<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Our dizzying development speed \u2013 we\u2019re about to castle as Black hasn\u2019t developed any kingside pieces \u2013 means this move hides a subtle threat. Black often continues with <\/span><b>6&#8230;Rc8<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, not understanding the gravity of our reply: <\/span><b>7.dxc5<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/lichess.org\/study\/embed\/C3h75Q9f\/2dUoj6Uj\" width=\"600\" height=\"371\" frameborder=\"0\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><br \/><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">First, with dxc5, we got rid of the constantly harassed d4-pawn. Also, after <\/span><b>7&#8230;Bxc5<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, we can just castle, <\/span><b>8.O-O<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, while defending our f2-pawn. The Black bishop is poorly placed on c5 and invites the space-reaping b2-b4 and a2-a4 advances. Lastly, though our e5-pawn loses some defense, our light squared bishop being actively developed to d3 (and not the usual e2) allows us to defend it with a rook\/queen along the e-file.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Since we have a comfortable position there, Black may choose to miraculously rewind time to play <\/span><b>6&#8230;cxd4<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> instead \u2013 breaking our dxc5 utopia and spacetime causality. We\u2019ll recapture this pawn, <\/span><b>7.cxd4<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Black\u2019s most natural response is <\/span><b>7&#8230;Qb6<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, pressuring the d4-pawn and exploiting our light squared bishop\u2019s obstruction. This bishop must move, right?<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wrong! We\u2019re just going to castle, and this gives up a pawn after <\/span><b>8.O-O Nxd4<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p><p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/lichess.org\/study\/embed\/C3h75Q9f\/cuAGY7Pp\" width=\"600\" height=\"371\" frameborder=\"0\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><br \/><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We\u2019re playing a gambit! Instead of capturing the knight, which activates Black\u2019s queen, we\u2019ll continue developing with <\/span><b>9.Nbd2<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Here, Black most commonly takes our knight, and though piece trades are bad for us gambiteers, <\/span><b>9&#8230;Nxf3 10.Nxf3<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> does open up the position a lot.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Black has many ideas now, the most precise of which is probably &#8230;Bb5, forcing a trade of the despised French bishop. But for most people, <\/span><b>10&#8230;Bc5<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is more natural, to develop a piece that hasn\u2019t moved before. It doesn\u2019t seem like there\u2019s much left in this position for us. But think back to a few paragraphs ago, when we saw a bishop which was misplaced on c5 because it allowed a certain queenside pawn advance.<\/span><\/p><p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/lichess.org\/study\/embed\/C3h75Q9f\/cTNe9Y5q\" width=\"600\" height=\"371\" frameborder=\"0\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><br \/><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you found the move, congrats for so rapidly absorbing the barbaric spirit of this mini-repertoire. We\u2019re sending one more pawn through the shredder to open even more lines: <\/span><b>11.b4!?!<\/b><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The idea behind this is to open up the b-file for our queen\u2019s rook. <\/span><b>11&#8230;Bxb4?! 12.Rb1<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (pinning the bishop to the queen) <\/span><b>Qa5 <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(getting out of the pin) <\/span><b>13.a3!<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. When the bombarded bishop gets out of the way, our rook will capture the b7-pawn, infiltrating deep into Black\u2019s position. The rook on b7 can also tie the Black king down to the d7-bishop\u2019s defense, preventing castling. Now just one pawn behind, our development and attacking avenues give us more than enough compensation.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Also, note that <\/span><b>13&#8230;Bxa3??<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> fails to <\/span><b>14.Ra1<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> winning the bishop. Not that opponents at our exceptional skill level would fall into that, right?<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Anyway, Black has an alternative move we should consider way back on move nine. Though 9&#8230;Nxf3 is a very popular try, I think the down-to-earth <\/span><b>9&#8230;Nc6<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> line actually poses more problems for us.<\/span><\/p><p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/lichess.org\/study\/embed\/C3h75Q9f\/1wQmMXGy\" width=\"600\" height=\"371\" frameborder=\"0\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><br \/><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We\u2019re in a more closed position \u2013 not what we want.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Since Black didn\u2019t take our f3-knight, our d2-knight is stuck in an awkward space, blocking in our bishop, which in turn blocks in the rook. So we\u2019ll get this bumbling knight out of the way with <\/span><b>10.Nb3<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> where it eyes some key squares.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Black\u2019s kingside pieces hesitantly emerge at last, starting after <\/span><b>10&#8230;Nge7<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. We continue developing too. Best is to get our bishop out with tempo: <\/span><b>11.Be3<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> hitting the Black queen, which retreats via <\/span><b>11&#8230;Qc7<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. See how &#8230;Bc5 wasn\u2019t possible because of our b3-knight\u2019s influence.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lining up the rook against this deserting queen, we largely complete our harmonious development, <\/span><b>12.Rc1<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Finally, after <\/span><b>12&#8230;Ng6<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> we play a powerful knight advance with several ideas behind it: <\/span><b>13.Nc5!<\/b><\/p><p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/lichess.org\/study\/embed\/C3h75Q9f\/IrmXPQtP\" width=\"600\" height=\"371\" frameborder=\"0\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><br \/><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That\u2019s all the theory I expect you guys to remember, but to illustrate our position\u2019s strength, here are some ways the game could go on:\u00a0<\/span><\/p><ul><li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>13&#8230;Be7 14.b4<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, strong space advantage and queenside pressure for us<\/span><\/li><li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>13&#8230;Ngxe5 14.Nxe5 Qxe5 15.Nxb7<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, sound according to the engine, but this exposes Black\u2019s position more, making it hard to defend in practice \u2013 we have a 65% winrate in the amateur database<\/span><\/li><li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>13&#8230;Bxc5 14.Bxc5 Ngxe5 15.Nxe5 Qxe5 16.Re1<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> where Black can\u2019t castle, we have the bishop pair, better-placed pieces and long-term positional pressure that does compensate for 2-3 whole pawns<\/span><\/li><\/ul><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Black is going through some rough ground. Our brutish approach towards 5&#8230;Bd7 (and perhaps the French in general!) is satisfyingly opposite to what the Black player expects after playing such a quiet move. So aside from being sound and tricky, these lines give a psychological advantage too.<\/span><\/p><h3><b>The Rebellious 5&#8230;Qb6<\/b><\/h3><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Black\u2019s most popular fifth move, especially at amateur level. It\u2019s so mind-numblingly common, in fact, that sometimes we gloss over its sheer rebelliousness. In what other mainline does one bring out their queen as the second piece developed, as early as move five, to a fairly advanced square, breaking all your chess teacher\u2019s rules? (Don\u2019t answer that, there\u2019s definitely a few, but my mind\u2019s gone blank)<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Black\u2019s <\/span><b>5&#8230;Qb6<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> attacks our d4-pawn, so we\u2019ll carefully <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">not <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">defend it with <\/span><b>6.Bd3<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. This follows our usual development scheme, the bishop a sniper behind the pawn chain\u2019s wall. But we do give up a pawn (is the wall crumbling?) after <\/span><b>6&#8230;cxd4<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. We commit to the bit by castling: <\/span><b>7.O-O<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p><p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/lichess.org\/study\/embed\/C3h75Q9f\/BP7Q5BgC#1\" width=\"600\" height=\"371\" frameborder=\"0\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><br \/><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We\u2019re playing a gambit, but don\u2019t worry, we\u2019re on solid theoretical ground. Black can choose not to take our pawn here. <\/span><b>7&#8230;Bd7 8.cxd4<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> transposes to the main line of the previous section.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But <\/span><b>7&#8230;dxc3 8.Nxc3<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and the real fun starts; only for us, though.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s often said (by miserable materialistic grinders) that a pawn is a pawn. But sometimes active pieces, rapid development, and king safety can be pawns too. We\u2019re going to use these fancy pawns to attack Black\u2019s king.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Soon, Be3 will come with tempo, and we can actively place our rooks on c1 and e1. Our d3-bishop can initiate Greek gift sacrifices, dying with honor. The headstrong e5-pawn controls d6 and f6. We get ideas of Bg5 (potential knight pins) and Nb5 (hopping into d6).<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One move Black can play, preventing the latter idea, is <\/span><b>8&#8230;a6<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. A good response is always <\/span><b>9.Be3<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, developing actively with tempo. Here, our bishop importantly controls the c5- and b6-squares. Black\u2019s most popular retreat is <\/span><b>9&#8230;Qc7<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, keeping the queen a bit involved, and eying our e5-pawn.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Many moves are fine here, but I prefer <\/span><b>10.Na4<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p><p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/lichess.org\/study\/embed\/C3h75Q9f\/jDZxeEZA#1\" width=\"600\" height=\"371\" frameborder=\"0\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><br \/><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Taking on e5 here is remarkably common and remarkably horrible. After <\/span><b>10&#8230;Nxe5 11.Nxe5 Qxe5 12.Nb6 Rb8 13.Qa4+<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is crushing because the Black king is forced to move. Black loses castling rights and strands his king centrally where it\u2019ll be tormented for many moves to come.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Less intuitive is <\/span><b>10&#8230;Nge7<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, calmly developing, realising that Nb6 isn\u2019t a huge threat because the rook can just move. This is Black\u2019s best approach. We continue with <\/span><b>11.Rc1<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, a common idea to line up the rook against the enemy queen, setting up future pin threats. Black usually continues developing with <\/span><b>11&#8230;Ng6<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, opening up the bishop and also hitting our e5-pawn. To defend the e5-pawn, we\u2019ll first clear our bishop out of the way with tempo (<\/span><b>12.Bb6! Qb8<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">) and then guard it with the rook: <\/span><b>13.Re1<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p><p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/lichess.org\/study\/embed\/C3h75Q9f\/pFInb41x#1\" width=\"600\" height=\"371\" frameborder=\"0\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><br \/><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A much better try for Black is <\/span><b>8&#8230;Bd7<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Black doesn\u2019t create any unnecessary weaknesses, develops the bishop and prepares to activate the queenside rook. Again we play <\/span><b>9.Be3<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, but here Black\u2019s best move is fully retreating with <\/span><b>9&#8230;Qd8<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Without an early &#8230;a6, a queen on c7 would be too weak to future Nb5 ideas.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(Note that 9&#8230;d4, a clever-looking fork, fails to 10.Nxd4 Nxd4 11.Qg4 picking the piece back up with advantage.)<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We\u2019ll continue with <\/span><b>10.Re1<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, developing the rook and preparing to defend the e5-pawn. To do that, we have to move our e3-bishop out of the way. One option is Bf4, but the overprotection is less effective when Black likely won\u2019t play the f6-break. The bishop can also be attacked by Ne7-Ng6.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Better is the very rare idea of Bd2!. This defends the c3-knight. Black would love to play Bb4 and Bxc3, getting development and mitigating his space disadvantage through trades. So putting the bishop on d2 prevents this idea. If &#8230;Bxc3, we\u2019d take back and get a nifty c3-bishop patrolling d4 and e5.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But after <\/span><b>10&#8230;Nge7<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, we have an even better place to move this bishop, with the very tricky <\/span><b>11.Bg5!<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. The main point is that the most intuitive and common move, even in high-level slow games, is <\/span><b>11&#8230;h6??<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which loses on the spot!! <\/span><b>12.Nb5!<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> offers a bishop in exchange for a checkmate&#8230; and Black faces serious material loss and king safety issues.<\/span><\/p><p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/lichess.org\/study\/embed\/C3h75Q9f\/6YQWK46F#1\" width=\"600\" height=\"371\" frameborder=\"0\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><br \/><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The above position\u2019s gotten so bad for Black, the computer wants him to give up his queen to not get shortly checkmated. The top engine line goes 12&#8230;Qb8 13.Nd6+ Qxd6!<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Clearly, 11&#8230;h6 was a bit of a mistake. The best move was actually <\/span><b>11&#8230;a6<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which stops all the b5-nonsense forever, and only after <\/span><b>12.Rc1 h6<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is the offending g5-bishop kicked out. Now we play <\/span><b>13.Bd2<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, with the same ideas as mentioned before.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&lt;iframe width=&#8221;600&#8243; height=&#8221;371&#8243; src=&#8221;https:\/\/lichess.org\/study\/embed\/C3h75Q9f\/qCdmoOtT#1&#8243; frameborder=0&gt;&lt;\/iframe&gt;<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Against 5&#8230;Qb6, we\u2019ve learned an interesting gambit line where White keeps up strong positional pressure that often leads to mating attacks. And that wraps up all our theory.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><h1><b>Conclusion<\/b><\/h1><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the Advance French, Black has three main theoretical options, 5&#8230;Nge7, 5&#8230;Bd7 and 5&#8230;Qb6. We play similarly against all three options, so hopefully all the chess notation didn\u2019t bog down your mind too much.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In part 3, we\u2019ll look at some model games involving our theory and key ideas. There\u2019s more ground to cover, so keep your ear to the\u2026 Chess In The Library website.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-2a78063d e-con-full e-flex e-con e-child\" data-id=\"2a78063d\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-e-type=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-221907d9 elementor-widget elementor-widget-sidebar\" data-id=\"221907d9\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"sidebar.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div id=\"search-2\" class=\"sidebar-box widget_search clr\">\n<form aria-label=\"Search this website\" role=\"search\" method=\"get\" class=\"searchform\" action=\"https:\/\/chessinthelibrary.com\/\">\t\n\t<input aria-label=\"Insert search query\" type=\"search\" id=\"ocean-search-form-1\" class=\"field\" autocomplete=\"off\" placeholder=\"Search\" name=\"s\">\n\t\t<\/form>\n<\/div>\n\t\t<div id=\"recent-posts-2\" class=\"sidebar-box widget_recent_entries clr\">\n\t\t<h4 class=\"widget-title\">Recent Posts<\/h4>\n\t\t<ul>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<li>\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/chessinthelibrary.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/05\/the-chess-master-who-had-no-enemies\/\">The Chess Master Who Had No Enemies<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<li>\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/chessinthelibrary.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/05\/march-to-victory-with-the-advance-french-2-basic-theory-duplicate-3849\/\">March to Victory with the Advance French #3 &#8211; Model Games<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<li>\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/chessinthelibrary.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/05\/march-to-victory-with-the-advance-french-1-key-ideas-duplicate-3770\/\">March to Victory with the Advance French #2 &#8211; Basic Theory<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<li>\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/chessinthelibrary.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/05\/march-to-victory-with-the-advance-french-1\/\">March to Victory with the Advance French #1 &#8211; Key Ideas<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<li>\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/chessinthelibrary.com\/index.php\/2018\/09\/09\/ppia-2-queenside-pawn-storm\/\">Positional Play IN ACTION #2 &#8211; Queenside Pawn Storm<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/ul>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Introduction Hi everyone! Welcome back to another school year, and, much more importantly, another year of Chess in the Library\u2019s tournaments. As we advance through higher grades, take advanced classes, and advance in our careers, hopefully our chess skills will advance as well. That\u2019s why today\u2019s blog is on the Advance French. 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