You like the French, so the most logical opening to choose would be one that has a similar pawn structure.
The Queen's Gambit Declined comes closest I think:


This is the basic poisiton, you can go for one of several subsystems
The Tarrasch:


The Tartakower:


Those are the two best systems in the QGD in my opinion. The Tarrasch features more open positions with an IQP while the Tartakower is rather closed, more like the French.
A look at my database says people who play 1...e6 usually play 2...Nf6 (Indian openings), 2...f5 (Dutch), 2...d5 (QGD) or 2...b6 (English).

It's good to have a centralized king, right?

Haha. Wow. Check out this game and my kings adventure through space and time starting with 11. ... Ke7.

But I won. My opponent resigned, but I was up material, and probably a better board position. This was my first attempt playing what I understand to be the English.

[Event "rated blitz match"]
[Site "Free Internet Chess Server"]
[Date "2009.03.30"]
[Round "?"]
[White "tuggernuts"]
[Black "xPOGOx"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "1066"]
[BlackElo "931"]
[ECO "A13"]
[TimeControl "600"]

1. c4 e6 2. d4 b6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. Nf3 Bb7 5. Qc2 f5 6. Bg5 Nf6 7. a3 Bxc3+ 8.
bxc3 h6 9. Bh4 g5 10. Bg3 f4 11. Qg6+ Ke7 12. Qg7+ Kd6 13. c5+ bxc5 14. dxc5+
Kxc5 15. Nxg5 hxg5 16. Bxf4 gxf4 17. Qg5+ d5 18. Qe5 Rh5 19. Qd4+ Kd6 20.
Qxf4+ Ke7 21. g4 Rh4 22. Qg5 Rxg4 23. Qh6 Nbd7 24. Bh3 Re4 25. Qg7+ Kd6 26.
Qg3+ e5 27. c4 Rxc4 28. Rd1 d4 29. Rg1 Ne4 30. Qg6+ Qf6 31. Qxe4 Bxe4 32.
Bxd7 Kxd7 33. f3 Bc2 0-1




7. a3 Bxc3

I'm not entirely positive this was a good trade for me. The one thing about the English defense is that neither of the bishops is really all that terrible.

8. ... h6
9. Bh4 ...

At this point, I knew his bishop was toast. This is a sort of neat trap trick which I learn playing QGD. When the bishop's pawn on that side (when playing white, c4) has been promoted to the fourth rank and opponent responds to rook's pawn 3 by backing the bishop up and attempting to keep the pin, then you are trapping that bishop with your pawns by knight's pawn 4 and bishop's pawn 5, as I did here.

11. Qg6+ Ke7
12. Qg7+ Kd6
13. c5+ bxc5
14. dxc5+ Kxc5

My king's adventure through time and space. Maybe this was bad, but I spent more time than I normally spend in 10 0 games deciding on these moves. And maybe this is a result of playing the less popular opening I played, but white's opening seems to have failed him. He's got zero central control, especially now with those pawn moves. Absolutely all of his pieces except one rook are tied up on the king side of the board. I'm running to the queen side with these moves. Yes, I'm wide open, but the queen generally can't mate me by herself and white is going to have some difficulty getting pieces in to hurt me over here I think. Especially when...

15. Nxg5 hxg5

Loses an unthreatened knight for a pawn, and then...

16. Bxf4 gxf4

So he ends up with two pawns (so far) for two pieces. But then...

17. Qg5+ d5
18. Qe5 Rh5
19. Qd4+ Kd6
20. Qxf4 Ke7

White takes all day long to finally capture the pawn on f4 (could've captured on move 18), which allows me to reposition my king back to a more sane square and get my rook up and active.

From here on out, it looks like mostly bad tactics for white. Throughout the game, white wastes a lot of queen moves that accomplish nothing and allow me the time to reposition into safer positions for my king, more active positions for my other pieces, or just storm some pawns down. Yes, he's delivering checks, but after move 14, with every check he delivered, I either moved my king to a safer square or moved a piece to a better square. None of his checks really put me in a worse position.

What a king walk!

For what it's worth, here is an example of the use of the English defense at very high levels.

Polugaevsky vs Korchnoi in Evian, in the 1977 world championship semi-finals.



1.d4 e6 2.c4 b6 3.e4 Bb7 4.Qc2 Qh4 5.Nd2 Bb4 6.Bd3 f5 7.Ngf3 Bxd2+ 8.Kf1 Qh5 9.Bxd2 Nf6 10.exf5 Bxf3 11.gxf3 Nc6 12.Bc3 O-O 13.Re1 Qh3+ 14.Ke2 Rae8 15.Kd1 e5 16.dxe5 Nxe5 17.Be2 Nxf3 18.Qd3 Rxe2 19.Rxe2 Qg2 20.Rhe1 Nxe1 21.Kxe1 Qxh2 22.Re7 Qg1+ 23.Ke2 Qg4+ 24.Ke1 h5 25.Qg3 Qxg3 26.fxg3 Rf7 27.Bxf6 gxf6 28.Re8+ Kg7 29.Kf2 Kh6 30.b4 Kg5 31.Ra8 Kxf5 32.Rxa7 d6 33.a4 Ke6 34.a5 bxa5 35.Rxa5 f5 36.c5 Rh7 37.cxd6 cxd6 38.b5 h4 39.gxh4 Rxh4 40.Ra8 Rb4 41.Rb8 Kd5 42.Kf3 Rb3+ 43.Kf4 Kc5 44.Rc8+ Kxb5 45.Kxf5 Re3 46.Kf4 Re1 47.Rd8 Kc5 48.Rc8+ Kd4 49.Kf3 d5 50.Kf2 Re5 51.Ra8 Kc3 52.Ra3+ Kb4 53.Ra1 d4 54.Rc1 d3 55.Rc8 d2 56.Rb8+ Kc3 57.Rc8+ Kd3 58.Rd8+ Kc2 59.Rc8+ Kd1 60.Rc7 Rf5+ 61.Kg2 Ke2 62.Re7+ Kd3 63.Rd7+ Ke3 64.Re7+ Kd4 65.Rd7+ Rd5 0-1

What happens when you refuse a draw? You lose.



[Event "rated blitz match"]
[Site "Free Internet Chess Server"]
[Date "2009.03.31"]
[Round "?"]
[White "greypeace"]
[Black "xPOGOx"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "1104"]
[BlackElo "979"]
[ECO "C01"]
[TimeControl "600"]

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. exd5 exd5 4. Nf3 c5 5. h3 Nc6 6. Bb5 Qb6 7. Bxc6+ bxc6
8. O-O Nf6 9. c3 Bd6 10. Nbd2 O-O 11. Re1 cxd4 12. Nxd4 c5 13. N4b3 c4 14.
Nd4 Bc5 15. N2f3 Bb7 16. Rb1 a5 17. Qc2 Bc6 18. Ng5 g6 19. Be3 Rfe8 20. Bf4
Ne4 21. Rbd1 a4 22. f3 Bxd4+ 23. cxd4 Nxg5 24. Bxg5 Rxe1+ 25. Rxe1 Qxd4+ 26.
Be3 Qe5 27. Bf2 Qf4 28. Qc3 Re8 29. Be3 Qh4 30. Bf2 Qg5 31. Rxe8+ Bxe8 32.
Qd4 Bc6 33. Be3 Qe7 34. Bh6 f6 35. Be3 Qe5 36. Qc5 Qe6 37. Qb6 Qd6 38. Bc5
Qd7 39. Bd4 Qd6 40. Kf2 Kf7 41. Bc5 Qd7 42. g4 a3 43. Bxa3 d4 44. Bc5 d3 45.
Be3 d2 {greypeace resigns} 0-1



So, you see all the bishop/queen dancing that goes around between moves 32 and 41? Yeah, that's me thinking about how to win (knowing I probably can, since I have a one pawn advantage) while offering my opponent draws. He was about 150 rating points higher than me, so I'd still get a rating boost from a draw.

It's also worth noting that I was about a 3 minute favorite on the clock when all this started.

And then I finally figured out how to get some pawns rolling: a3.

After

42. ... a3
43. Bxa3 d4

I stopped offering draws because I saw it was pretty clear that I'd be able to promote the pawn (or at least win his bishop by taking with check, so I can save mine).

My opponent resigned with just 17.4 seconds left on his clock to my 3:47.



I almost forgot to mention the part I'm most proud of in this game. Did you spot where my one pawn advantage came from? That's right. A huge tactical trade off on turns 21 through 25 which I had calculated all the way through to Qxd4+ which gains the advantage.

[Event "rated blitz match"]
[Site "Free Internet Chess Server"]
[Date "2009.03.31"]
[Round "?"]
[White "SMOOTHD"]
[Black "xPOGOx"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "1041"]
[BlackElo "990"]
[ECO "C01"]
[TimeControl "600"]

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. exd5 exd5 4. Qe2+ Be7 5. Nc3 Nf6 6. Bg5 O-O 7. O-O-O c5
8. Bxf6 Bxf6 9. dxc5 Bxc3 10. bxc3 Nc6 11. h3 d4 12. cxd4 Nxd4 13. Qd3 Qg5+
14. f4 Qxf4+ 15. Rd2 Ne6 16. Ne2 Qf2 17. Nd4 Nxc5 18. Rxf2 Nxd3+ 19. Bxd3 Be6
20. Nxe6 fxe6 21. Rxf8+ Rxf8 22. g4 a6 23. h4 b5 24. g5 Rb8 25. a3 a5 26. Re1
Rb6 27. Re5 Kf7 28. h5 Ke7 29. Bxh7 Kd6 30. Re4 b4 31. axb4 axb4 32. Rd4+ Kc5
33. Rd7 b3 34. Rxg7 b2+ 35. Kb1 Kd4 36. Rd7+ Kc3 37. Rc7+ Kd2 38. c4 Kc3 39.
c5 Ra6 40. c6 Ra1# {SMOOTHD checkmated} 0-1




So, I lost on the tactics at 17. Nd4. I end up down a knight, and even in the end game I make some missteps. But his missteps are worse. For some reason, instead of trying to walk his g or h pawns, which are already almost there, he goes for the c-pawn. Anyway, I end up with a pretty nice looking mate.

And now my blitz rating on FICS (I play mostly 10 0 r) is to 999! I'm almost up over 1000!

So, I'm still working on breaking up over 1000 on FICS. After attaining 999, I lost a few games in a row. I've now won a couple and my rating is back up to 994, so I'm getting close again.

Anyway, of the games I lost, I think I played mostly well, but ended up losing with some sort of blunder. This seems to be my most common reason for losing. At least against the opponents within my skill level, I seem to be playing even or better in the openings, and I'm not usually messing up my tactical play. Now...I might be missing some weird tactical lines that requires seeing 3, 4, 5 or more moves deep, but I think I'm playing a fairly solid, safe game.

Anyway, in my previous two wins, I played as white. In both games, black played what I thought was a strange/weak opening. As they don't seem to be particularly standard, I'm curious as to how my response to these openings is...

First game (again, I'm playing the white pieces in both games)...

1. d4 Nf6
2. c4 g6
3. g3 Bg7
4. Bg2 O-O
5. e4 ...

...which looks like this:



So, all black has really accomplished in the opening is king safety. Nf6 puts the knight on what would otherwise be a good square, but in this position it seems to simply be blocking his bishop. When he first plays it, it's attacking e4, so it prevents an immediate e4 from me, but once I get the fianchettoed bishop on g2, I'm protecting e4, so I can play it, so now the knight is simply blocking his bishop which is on what is otherwise a generally strong diagonal.

But with pawns up, I've got a dominating control over the center, and after Ne2, O-O, I've got my king castled and strengthen my center a bit with the only undefended pawn being on c4, but black's got some work to do before doing much about this. (Edit: for what it's worth, I just noticed that in this game, my opponent was actually a couple hundred rating points below me.)

Also, a few moves later in the game, we reached this position:



With white to move. Now, I ended up simply playing Bxf3, winning the free bishop, but looking at this position now, I'm wondering if I would've been better with Bxa8?

Bxa8 Bxa8
O-O?

Bxa8 Bxh1
Bxh1

So either I win an exchange and give up my bishop pair, or I trade rooks and still pick up the free bishop? I still think simply taking the free bishop was probably best, especially given there's still Bxa8 threatened, but was just curious what some strong players thought about this position.


Okay...now for the second game (this opponent actually is slightly higher rated than me)...

1. d4 e5
2. e4 d5
3. Nc3 Nf6
4. dxe5 Nxe4
5. Nxe4 dxe4

Which brings us to this position:




Now, immediately, I though e5 was a weird reply to d4, so I was kind of confused from the get-go. But I'm not sure this is the best way to hand d4 e5. Does anyone have some suggestions?

1st is called the King's Indian. Black usually play d6 and e5 on his next moves, when White can decide wether to block the centre with d5 or just castle and keep the tension for the moment. The Bishop may appear to be blocked, but it still has a huge influence on the centre.
In your second position, just count material after Bxa8 Bxa8 and Bxf3. A piece is better than the exchange.
3rd: 1.d4 e5 2.dxe5 Nc6 3.Nf3 is something I would've done, just take off the pawn and give it back at a convenient moment. The time Black needs to recover it can be used to develop, threaten stuff etc. The idea is to give back the pawn when you get positional advantages for it.

YAY! I'm officially over 1000 blitz rating on FICS. After the following game, my rating went from 996 to 1006.

But I'm not posting this game just because it bumped me over 1000 rating. CHECK OUT THAT PAWN STORM!

On turn 18, as black, I played a3, and the first pawn doesn't come off the board until 19. bxa3.

And yes, white resigned after 36. ... Kh7

And by the way, bonus points for whoever wants to count up how often I missed hanging pieces. The more I look at this, the worse my play looks. Queenside pawn storm seems good, but I made some retarded kingside plays.



[Event "rated blitz match"]
[Site "Free Internet Chess Server"]
[Date "2009.04.02"]
[Round "?"]
[White "ScaccoGentile"]
[Black "xPOGOx"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "1080"]
[BlackElo "996"]
[ECO "A40"]
[TimeControl "600"]

1. d4 e6 2. e4 d5 3. e5 c5 4. c3 Nc6 5. Nf3 Nge7 6. Bb5 a6 7. Ba4 b5 8. Bc2
Nf5 9. O-O Qb6 10. Bxf5 exf5 11. Be3 Be7 12. Qb3 c4 13. Qc2 O-O 14. Qe2 b4
15. Nbd2 a5 16. Bg5 a4 17. Nh4 f6 18. Bf4 a3 19. bxa3 bxc3 20. Ndf3 Nxd4 21.
Nxd4 Qxd4 22. Be3 Qe4 23. Nf3 fxe5 24. Rfe1 d4 25. Bg5 Bxa3 26. Nxe5 Bb2 27.
Rab1 Rxa2 28. Nxc4 Ba6 29. Qxe4 fxe4 30. Nxb2 cxb2 31. h3 h6 32. Be7 Rf4 33.
Bd6 Rf7 34. Kh2 Ra7 35. Rxe4 Bd3 36. Re8+ Kh7 0-1

All right, I know I haven't updated this in a while. It's mostly because I haven't been playing many games (at all) on FICS lately.

I have been doing some tactics exercises daily though to "keep in shape."

I did win another game against my coworker friend. A few months ago, when I first played him and my interest in chess piqued, he was beating me over and over and over and over. I've now beaten him twice in a row.

He doesn't really study chess to particularly much, he just seems to be a tactical master, and generally as soon as I blunder, he capitalizes and I can't recover.

But now, I've improved my tactics quite a bit so I'm not missing things as often, and I'm doing a better job of paying attention to what attacks he has, and the difference in our games is generally the better, safer positions I get from playing solid openings, whereas his positions are shakey because he plays openings that aren't so great.

Another try at the English Defense



[Event "rated blitz match"]
[Site "Free Internet Chess Server"]
[Date "2009.05.06"]
[Round "?"]
[White "MrCooke"]
[Black "xPOGOx"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "974"]
[BlackElo "1004"]
[ECO "A40"]
[TimeControl "600"]

1. d4 e6 2. Bf4 b6 3. e3 Bb7 4. Nc3 Bb4 5. Qd3 Nf6 6. a3 Bxc3+ 7. Qxc3 Nc6 8.
Bg5 O-O 9. Bxf6 Qxf6 10. Qd3 d5 11. e4 Na5 12. exd5 exd5 13. b4 Rfe8+ 14. Be2
Nc4 15. O-O-O Qxf2 16. Bf3 Qh4 17. g3 Qg5+ 18. Kb1 Re3 19. Qf1 Rxa3 20. Rd3
Nd2+ 21. Rxd2 Qxd2 22. Nh3 Qxb4+ 23. Kc1 Ra1# 0-1

A43, Old Benoni Defense



[Event "rated blitz match"]
[Site "Free Internet Chess Server"]
[Date "2009.05.07"]
[Round "?"]
[White "xPOGOx"]
[Black "roberti"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "1023"]
[BlackElo "1199"]
[ECO "A43"]
[TimeControl "600"]

1. d4 c5 2. e4 Nc6 3. Be3 e5 4. dxc5 Bxc5 5. Bxc5 Qa5+ 6. b4 Nxb4 7. Bxb4
Qxb4+ 8. c3 Qc5 9. Bd3 Nf6 10. Nd2 Qxc3 11. Ne2 Qxd3 12. O-O O-O 13. f3 d6
14. a4 b6 15. Rb1 Ba6 16. Ng3 Rac8 17. Rb3 Qd4+ 18. Rf2 Qxa4 19. Nf5 d5 20.
Ne7+ Kh8 21. Nxc8 Rxc8 22. exd5 Nxd5 23. Ne4 Ne3 24. Qb1 Qc4 25. Rc3 Qd4 26.
Rxc8+ Bxc8 27. Nd2 Bf5 28. Qe1 a5 29. Nb3 Qd3 30. Rd2 1-0


Black resigned after 30. Rd2

I'm always particularly happy when someone throws an opening at me that I haven't seen and I defeat it anyway.

Probably most of you don't pay enough attention to me (which is fine, and probably for the better of your own chess game), but as white, I'm a d4 c4 QG player. For quite some time now, my first move with white has always been d4. From there, I mix it up some. I'm not a pure QG player, for instance if my opponent plays e6, then I will play e4 and take a big center, even if this means I'm going to be facing the French...

But here was a move I've not seen yet.

1. d4 c5

According to chess.com, out of 967,522 games where white starts with 1. d4, black has responded with 1. ... c5 only 15,370 times. White's winning percentage is 40.2%, drawing 26.2%, and black winning is 33.6%.

And interestingly enough, of those 15,370 games, the move I chose next, 2. e4 was only played 366 times, however at 47.54%, it boasts the highest winning percentage for white of all white's possible second moves. And with a 24.59% drawing chance, that leaves black with the second lowest winning chances of all the other possible second moves.

Also, there appears to be just 1 live blitz video and 6 analysis videos on the Benoni defense on the forums. So I guess it's just a rarely seen opening.

Not that those winning percentages have any bearing on my game. If I'm going to win, I still have to play accurately.

All of my first 6 moves seem okay until I respond to 6. ... Qb4+ with 7. c3

There are some more mistakes throughout the game. I do like my maneuvering at the end however. I think I played this quite well.

I am quite interested in learning more about this opening however. If I'm going to be playing 1. d4, I should know how to respond to 1. ... c5 just as naturally as my automatic 1. d4 d5 2. c4 ....

As far as I know d5 and c4 are what's played. If you look at statistics always make sure to look at the rating performance of the players. 40% for White can be a huge score if Black is much higher rated.

Interesting game in the French.



1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 h6 5. Bh4 Be7 6. e5 Nfd7 7. Bxe7 Qxe7 8.
Nf3 c5 9. g3 Nc6 10. Bb5 a6 11. Bxc6 bxc6 12. Qd3 c4 13. Qd2 O-O 14. O-O-O
Qb4 15. a3 Qb6 16. Na4 Qb5 17. Nc3 Qb6 18. h4 Rb8 19. Na4 Qb5 20. b3 cxb3 21.
cxb3 Qxb3 22. Qc2 Qxa3+ 23. Kd2 Qb4+ 24. Kc1 Nb6 25. Nc5 Rd8 26. Qb2 Qc4+ 27.
Qc2 Qb5 28. Kd2 Nc4+ 29. Ke1 Qb4+ 30. Kf1 Na3 31. Nxa6 Nxc2 32. Nxb4 Rxb4 33.
Kg2 {johncarlo resigns} 0-1

I'm not sure why my opponent ended up resigning after he played 33. Kg2, it's quite a mystery to me. I mean, I know at this point I had taken the lead by winning a piece, but I don't think it's so clear that he can resign...especially at the level we're at. He should know there is still plenty of time for me to blunder away a piece back. Plus, the one piece I'm down? It's doing worse than nothing! It's blocking my rook.

Hmmm... personally I'm not a really big fan of the c4 pawn move as I just don't see what the plan is for Black after it. Yeah, it attacks White's Queen, but the Queen is easily moved, and then what? you have a pawn on a poor square, you give White an excellent home for his pieces on c5 and you will continue to have doubled pawns on the c file.

Typically when I play the a6 move to bounce the Bishop (hoping that he takes) it's with every intention to play cxd4 and then after White recaptures on d4 I play c5. I really like that setup as it has Black continuing to exert pressure (always a good thing) and removes the doubled pawns which are usually hard to turn into an advantage for Black. (there are times you could set up a battering ram type idea with them, but it's probably not worth the effort when you can immediately turn your doubles into an effective central controlling force. Add that to the fact that if instead of c4 you play cxd4 Qxd4 c5 the Queen is forced to either the e file or f3 to defend the e pawn which is now a bit of a liability for White if Black hurries in attacking it before he can prepare f4.

The downside? The Queen is a little stuck (I dislike the mainline because the Queen on e7 is poorly placed).

I think the benefits outway the drawbacks in this case. Though I'm certainly a bit rusty and might be missing something.

I think your opponent's biggest mistake was a3. (Well, one of many, castling long into an open file is a pretty big no no too.) You were threatening Rb8, but it was a threat of a threatened mate. 2 levels away is nothing to freak out about and go weakening your pawn structure for. Just glancing at it I think a better move would be Ne4. Attacks the queen, threatens an exchange (with the open file trading Queens is good for white I think). And it sets up Nd6 giving White a BADASS knight. After that I think I prefer White's position to Blacks, though the half open b file and poor placement of the King could still cause some problems if not handled properly. My thoughts are something along the way of Ne4 Qb3 Nd6 Rb8 Qc3 then Black has pressure on the b file but terribly placed minor pieces and White has the monster of d6 and his other pieces aren't so bad especially considering that Black's Bishop is VERY bad unless he can get it outside the pawn chain.

As for the resignation? Welll you'll find a lot of people that give up on a game as soon as they make a mistake. They're probably giving you too much credit, as there is a good chance you'd blunder something back (no offense). But you should be happy that they did so, they took all the work out of finishing the game.

The Bishop, though ugly now, actually can turn into a decent piece after Ba6. There also could be ideas of Rb2 threatening Ne3+. But you'd have to find something better then the easily side stepped threat of Ne3+ to make that a viable move.

Alright, those are the thoughts of the exhausted guy who hasn't played any real chess for 2 months. Hopefully it's not got too many errors in it to make it hurtful rather then useful.