I'm not too familiar with this opening line, although several people here play the French. I believe Robofriven posted a game in the exchange French a while back.

Anyways, I liked your discussion of the basic opening ideas in the French. It was helpful for someone unfamiliar with the opening (like me).

I'm not 100% sure, but in some lines, white plays Bd3 (instead of Nf3). The idea is that if you play Nf6, white plays Bg5 and Qf3. I'm not really sure how black reacts to that though, so you might want to look at the lines after Bd3 some.

...Bf5 looks like a logical move. That being said, sometimes it weakens b7 a lot (especially once white's c-pawn has moved). I think i might've just tried to castle as fast as possible. Of course once you get in ..c6, your bishop is looking excellent on f5 since your b7 pawn is no longer a weakness. So, as far as ...Bf5, it's probably the best move as long as white can't exploit the weakness on b7. But, I'm not sure white can't do so. So you might want to look at something like Qb3 after you play Bf5.

Anyways, you're exactly right about the isolated queen pawn being weak in the position you have. I don't think white is going to be able to get in d5 (especially if you can get in Nbd7-b6). However, white might be able to try d5 as soon as you play Nbd7. Did you analyze that line during the game? It looks like it might be a good idea for white. If so, maybe you could try ...Be7 instead of Nbd7.

..Qb6 seems like a good idea. Although what happens after d5? It seems like your opponent had lots of chances to get in d5. I'm not really sure what happens in those lines though. They're probably fine for black, but pushing d5 still looks better than what white played.

Anyways, I didn't analyze the ramifications of the d5 pushes very much, but the main point is that in these positions, you need to very carefully consider the d5 push every move. The central idea is pushing the isolated pawn in these positions.

In the game though, you got a nice blockade. And in that possible dual isolated pawn structure (you said it's fairly equal), I think you're actually better. The reason is that white has a dark square bishop that is hemmed in by the d4 pawn. Whereas your knight has lots of good squares in the center.

I think you played against the d-pawn well, although I'm curious if white could've improved by pushing that pawn (as I've mentioned several times).

Very interesting discussion of the opening and early middlegame. Thanks for the video!

I looked very briefly, what struck me is why didn't white play bxc3 instead of Qxc3? Seems like white is simply better with reasonable pawn structure and 2 bishops against 2 knights.

I didn't like ...Bb4 so much. I would just play Be7 and then castle. I don't want to give up a bishop for a knight, I think there's clearly no reason to allow that. After Be7 and 00 white has absolutely no reason to have an advantage over you. When you give up the bishop.....ok white may always have some slight pull. Don't take this as gospel just looked at it quickly.

Nh4 seemed like quite a good move from white.