Playing the French (tapa dura), de Jacob Aagaard y Nikolaos Ntirlis

This Playing the French is a hardcover chess book on the French Defence, written for players who want to build a Black repertoire against 1.e4 and understand the opening’s strategic ideas, not just its move orders.

What this book covers

The authors present a complete repertoire for Black based on 3.Nc3 Nf6 and 3.Nd2 c5. The French Defence often leads to closed or semi-closed positions, so the book focuses on the structures, plans and positional themes that matter when the centre becomes locked.

Alongside the main lines, the book includes new opening ideas and detailed explanations of the strategic and positional concepts behind them. That makes it useful both for players who want to use the French Defence with Black and for those preparing to meet it with White.

Authors and edition

Jacob Aagaard and Nikolaos Ntirlis are the authors of this 464-page hardcover edition, published on 27 November 2013.

• Product type: hardcover chess book
• Opening: French Defence
• Repertoire: Black repertoire against 1.e4
• Line coverage: 3.Nc3 Nf6 and 3.Nd2 c5
• Focus: strategic and positional understanding
• Authors: Jacob Aagaard, Nikolaos Ntirlis
• Number of pages: 464
• ISBN: 978-1-907982-37-8