Download PGN of April ’26 French games
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Advance Variation 5...Bd7 6 Bd3 cxd4 7 cxd4 Qb6 8 Bc2 [C02]
In the Advance Variation after 3 e5 c5 4 c3 Nc6 5 Nf3 Bd7 6 Bd3 cxd4, Black is often shying away from 7 0-0 and turning back to 7 cxd4. I examine the following game in part due to the strength of the opponents, but also because after 7...Qb6, a fair number of players have used White’s 8th move 8 Bc2 to avoid the Milner-Barry Gambit with 8 0-0. This allows 8...Nb4!, winning the bishop pair after 9 0-0 Nxc2 10 Qxc2. Then in Ngoc Truong Nguyen, - Erigaisi, A, Thursday Feb 26 2026, Black continued 10...Rc8 11 Nc3 Ne7:
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In return for the bishops,White has secured his center and space advantage. Over 300 games in my database have reached this position, and in over half of them White played Nguyen’s next move 12 Be3. After 12...Nf5, my engine slightly favors Black but it’s a solid game with mutual chances. White soon went wrong and gave Black a substantial advantage.
Winawer Main with 7 h4 Nbc6 8 Nf3 h6 [C18]
After 3 Nc3 Bb4 4 e5 c5 5 a3 Bxc3 6 bxc3 Ne7 7 h4, we’ve seen a lot of 7...Qc7, but not as much of 7...Nbc6:
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The authors of 'Beating the French Winawer: the h4 Ram' consider this configuration of knights 'dubious'. Nevertheless, they devote 15 pages of dense analysis and additional annotated games to it. Caruana, F - Celik, H, 2026 Masters Saint Louis 2026, shows a supergrandmaster handling the position and illustrates that it may not be easy to maintain White’s advantage. Caruana plays an early a4 and Black uses a setup with ...Qa5, which seems to be sound enough, and the opening and early middlegame are satisfactory for him.
3 Nc3 a6 Variation [C11]
Over the past few years some serious attention has been given to the order 1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 Nc3 a6, versions of which have been played as Black by the likes of Carlsen, Nakamura, Firouzja, and Radjabov (all in Blitz games in their case, but in slower games by players in the 2500s and 2600s). It happens that quite a few of the games played in this variation began by the transposition 1 e4 a6 2 d4 e6 3 Nc3 d5. And the position after 1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 Nc3 a6 4 Nf3 has arisen via 1 e4 a6 2 d4 e6 3 Nf3 d5 4 Nc3, as well as 1 Nf3 a6 2 e4 e6 3 d4 d5 4 Nc3 ! Notice that Jobava’s recent Modern Chess course features 1 e4 e6 2 d4 a6, which doesn’t necessarily transpose (e.g., 3 Nc3 b5), but can, for example, after 3 Nf3 d5 4 Nc3.
I didn’t take 3...a6 seriously until a few analysts tackled it in depth and drew my attention to it. There are a surprising number of games to look at here, and even a few recent theoretical works. Black’s first idea is to prepare ...c5. You will see that in our 3 Nc3 a6 order, 4 Bd3 is answered by 4...c5, and similarly, 4 Nf3 Nf6 5 Bd3 c5. Compare the sequence 1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 Nc3 c5, when 4 exd5 exd5 5 Nf3 (or 5 Bb5) 5...Nc6 6 Bb5 is one of the standard solutions; thus it can be said that 3...a6 preemptively stops Bb5 in preparation for ...c5.
3 Nc3 a6 Variation 4 Nf3 Nf6 5 e5 Nfd7 6 Ne2 c5 7 c3 Nc6 [C11]
One of the ‘main lines’ after 3 Nc3 a6 goes 4 Nf3 Nf6 5 e5 Nfd7, and now 6 Ne2 c5 7 c3 secures White’s pawn chain. After 7...Nc6, a decision arises:
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The two normal moves here have been 8 a3 and 8 g3. Meng, Y - Dudin, G, 3rd Thursday Feb 5th 2026, saw another pawn move: 8 h4!?
This logically expands on the kingside, but also creates weaknesses there, so Black can counter with 8...cxd4 9 cxd4 f6!. After 8...b5?! 9 Nf4 instead, White came out of the opening better, after which a fascinating back-and-forth battle ensued.
I’ve chosen an older high-level encounter to illustrate 8 g3:
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Wagner, D - Nakamura, H, Titled Tuesday April 2 2024, saw Hikaru experiment with the unique 8...a5, and the game serves as a warning that even an elite player can struggle when playing too many slow moves in the opening (...a6 and ...a5). Black gets a losing position, although he recovers in the end. Some alternatives and game excerpts are given in the notes.
8 a3 is played the most, both preventing ...Bb4+ and discouraging ...Qa5 while preparing a timely b4.
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Moussard, J - Dudin, G, 3rd Thursday Jan 22 2026, saw Black’s most common move, 8...Be7, when White followed up with 9 g3 and 10 Bg2 with a slight edge; I think 9 h4 is a better try for a serious advantage. In the notes, I examine a couple of games with Black’s other common move 8...b5. All in all, I think White should have some advantage in these lines, but nothing too frightening.
3 Nc3 a6 Variation 4 Nf3 Nf6 5 Bd3 [C10]
Another common line is 4 Nf3 Nf6 5 Bd3:
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Deac, B - Rasulov, V, Titled Tuesday 1st Apr 2025 (which began 1 Nf3 a6 2 e4 e6 3 d4 d5 4 Nc3) continued 5...c5 6 exd5 exd5 7 Qe2+ Be7 8 dxc5 0-0, and here both 9 Be3 and 9 Bg5 (as in the game) promise to give White a small edge, but nothing special.
3 Nc3 a6 Variation 4 Be3 [C10]
The simple developing move 4 Be3 discourages ...c5 and I suspect gives White some advantage:
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In Vasilkov, N - Hayrapetyan, E, Moscow Aeroflot 2026, Black played the Winawer move 4...Bb4 (I give some analysis of the reasonable 4...Nf6) and the game continued 5 e5 c5. Here 6 Qg4! was promising, and better than 6 a3, which could have been met by 6...cxd4! with equality, whereas 6...Bxc3+ 7 bxc3 Ne7 was only modestly in White’s favor.
3 Nc3 Be7 Variation [C10]
3...Be7 is arguably the soundest of Black’s irregular options versus 3 Nc3. It continues to score reasonably well as the theory of the move expands. In Karttunen, M - Lingineni, K, 1st Thursday Mar 5 2026, 3 Nc3 Be7 4 e5 c5 was played, and White chose 5 dxc5 (I put some analysis of the critical 5 Qg4 in a note) 5...Nc6:
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Now White can still play 6 Qg4, but this allows Black the response 6...Nxe5 7 Qxg7 Ng6, which gave equal play in a correspondence game I cite. Instead, the game continued with 6 Bb5 Bxc5 7 Qg4, and Black would have had no problems at all with the thematic sacrifice 7...Nge7! 8 Qxg7 Rg8. Instead, 7...Kf8 8 Nf3 followed, with a small edge for White.
Till next month, John
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