"Mastering the French" by Neil McDonald and Andrew Hartley,
1997 American Batsford Chess Library, Figurine Algebraic
Notation, Paperback, 192pp., $22.50

A significant segment of today's chess book market consists of
opening books, which focus on the theory of one particular
opening or variation. Another large portion is made up of
instructional manuals, which purport to teach some aspect of the
game. "Mastering the French" is unusual in that it combines both
approaches by not only explaining the various ideas behind the
French Defense, but also offering current theory on the opening's
principal variations. As stated in the Preface by the authors, British
masters Neil McDonald and Andrew Hartley, "Unless the deluge
of theory is stemmed by Fischer's suggestion that pieces be
shuffled at the start of a game, it will always be necessary for the
serious player to combine his knowledge of strategical and tactical
themes with some memorising of opening variations."

The book consists of an Introduction, ten chapters of material and
an Index of Variations. Included are 40 complete master-level
games, mostly from the 1980s and 1990s, but only one from as
recent as 1996, the theoretically important Adams-Dreev game
(more on this later). Chapters cover the following material:
Chapter 1, titled "Advance Centre", examines the Advance
Variation, which occurs after 1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 e5; Chapter 2, "e6
weakness vs d4 weakness", looks at the Tarrasch Variation after
the moves 1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 Nd2 Nf6 4 e5 Nfd7 5 Bd3; "f4 Central
Clamp" covers the Tarrasch Variation with an early f4 for White;
Chapter 4, "Classical Centre" looks at positions where White plays
an early Nc3; the Winawer Variation, where Black plays Bb4, is
the subject of Chapter 5; the Poisoned Pawn line which occurs, for
example, after 1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 Nc3 Bb4 4 e5 c5 5 a3 Bxc3+ 6
bxc3 Ne7 7 Qg4 Qc7 8 Qxg7, is covered in Chapter 6; the
"Rubinstein Centre" examines positions where Black exchanges
his d-pawn for the White e-pawn; the Exchange variation, where
both e-pawns are exchanged, is the subject of Chapter 8; variations
where Black plays with an isolated queen pawn are covered in the
"IQP Centre"; the final chapter offers examples of other lines not
included in the previous nine chapters, such as the King's Indian
Attack Variation (1 e4 e6 2 d3) or the line seen in
Kasparov-Ivanchuk from 1995 Horgen: 1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 Nc3 Bb4
4 e5 b6 5 a3 Bf8.

Quoting the authors again from the Preface, "To master a chess
opening, it is essential to grasp the underlying strategic and tactical
ideas." Thus, each chapter begins by a review of the pawn structure
produced by the opening variation, followed by a look at typical
strategic and tactical themes that may result. The technique of
focusing on pawn structures has been employed as an effective
teaching tool by other writers, and is what gives this book its
instructional nature.

"Mastering the French" is, nonetheless, primarily an opening
manual and was evaluated as such by this writer. To determine
comprehensiveness of coverage, accuracy of material and inclusion
of current theory, Nikolay Minev's "French Defense, New and
Forgotten Ideas" from 1988, and John Watson's "Play the French
(New Edition)" 1996 version, were used as reference works.

Minev's book indicates that the significant variations of the French
appear to be the Tarrasch, Advance, Classical, Winawer,
MacCutcheon and the Exchange, all of which receive some
treatment by McDonald and Harley (M & H).

In Chapter 1, a total of 29 pages and five games are devoted to the
Advance Variation. M & H focus on the line 6 Be2 Nge7, which is
identified by Watson as "the most common move" at this point,
although he proceeds to advocate another idea.

In the Tarrasch, after 1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 Nd2 Nf6 4 e5 Nfd7 5 c3 e5
6 Ndf3 Nc6 7 Bd3 Qb6 8 Ne2 cxd4 9 cxd4 f6 10 exf6 Nxf6 11 0-0
Bd6, M & H (Game #8, Tseitlin-Schultz, 1992) transpose into the
line Watson claims "predominates at the top levels of
over-the-board play", 12 Nc3. Although M & H subsequently
deviate from Watson, their conclusion that the variation leads to
equality is essentially no different from Watson's assessment.

Both M & H and Watson cite the line 1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 Nc3 Bb4 4
e5 c5 5 a3 Bxc3+ 6 bxc3 Ne7 7 Qg4 Qc7 8 Qxg7 Rg8 9 Qxh7
cxd4 10 Ne2 Nbc6 11 f4 Bd7 12 Qd3 dxc3 13 Qxc3, referred to as
the "Poisoned Pawn" variation of the Winawer. At this point,
Watson recommends 13...0-0-0, leading to a small advantage for
Black, while M & H continue with the main Black alternative,
13...Nf5, and follow the game Stefansson-Kaminski from 1995,
won by Black (Game #21). Both sources also include games with 8
Bd3 which, apparently, has recently become popular again.

The inevitable conflict between sources occurs in the Tarrasch
Variation after 1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 Nd2 Nf6 4 e5 Nfd7 5 e4 c5 6 c3
Nc6 7 Ndf3 cxd4 8 cxd4 Qb6 9 g3 Bb4+ 10 Kf2 g5 11 Be3 f6 12
Bh3, transposing into Watson's main line. Here M & H suggest
12...fxe5, calling it the "most accurate move order" and offering
12...0-0 as Black's only option (Game #9, p.53). Black
eventually lost in the 1991 game Pyda-Likavsky, but missed what
could've been a significant improvement on move 14.

Watson, on the other hand, only suggests 12...h5, commenting that
this "is the most dynamic solution", based on a Tim Harding
correspondence game where Black had barely enough
compensation for the sacrificed exchange.

Of note is M & H's inclusion of a significant improvement in the
now-popular variation 1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 Nd2 c5 4 exd5 Qxd5. M
& H and Watson follow standard theory with 5 Ngf3 cxd4 6 Bc4
Qd6 7 0-0 Nf6 8 Nb3 Nc6 9 Nbxd4 Nxd4 10 Nxd4 a6 11 Re1 Qc7
12 Bb3 Bd6 13 Nf5 Bxh2+ 14 Kh1 0-0 15 Nxg7 Rd8 16 Qf3 Kxg7
17 Bh6+ Kg6 18 c3 Nd5.  At this point, Watson continues with the
well-known Khalifman-Gulko game from 1993, which was drawn
since White was able to play 19 Re4 and 20 Rg4.

M & H, however, cite the more recent Adams-Dreev from 1996
(omitted by Watson), when White improved with 19 Rad1 and won
shortly, reversing the assessment of this line (Game #28, pp.
143-148). Kudos to M & H for including this 
theoretically-important game.

All in all, "Mastering the French" is a solid selection for virtually
anyone wishing to learn the French, from the novice to, perhaps,
even the budding master. Less experienced players will appreciate
the instructional tone that permeates the book, while more
experienced players will find that M & H have made every effort to
incorporate current theory. While "Mastering the French" does not
present a comprehensive, theoretical review of the opening a la
John Watson, it does offer significant help to the student in
understanding how to play the opening and subsequent positions
from either side. Towards that end, this is a book that does what
others only purport to do: teach an opening. For that reason, this
writer considers this work to be one of the best new opening books
to hit the market this year.