Master the French Defense

Undermine Your Opponent at Every Turn:
Master the French Defense

The average 1.e4 player is ready for an open, tactical battle. But locking the position down so you can squeeze, fold, and twist your opponent at every turn? That’s the type of game White would rather avoid - but it’s what the French Defense is all about!

So if you’re looking to master a sophisticated response to 1.e4, National Master Bryan Tillis brings you one of the most practical yet comprehensive repertoires to do it.

With Master the French Defense, you’ll get all the principled, solid play the French is famous for: undermining White’s center, rope-a-dope counterattacks, and domination of the light squares. But you’ll also learn unique, creative ways to get White out of their comfortable mainlines and into your minefield.

Based on the play of the world’s top French Defense players and checked by 2021 US Open winner and French specialist Grandmaster Alex Lenderman, this course covers all of the main variations you’ll encounter with the French Defense with lines that are battle-tested from club level to top level. You’ll learn the:

♟Advance Variation (3.e5): learn a clever way to force a trade of your bad bishop for White’s good one and get a comfortable game where you can roll your queenside attack into victory

♟Exchange Variation (3.exd5): deny White the boring, drawish game they’re looking for! You’ll learn how to keep things interesting with piece setups that go for dynamic imbalances where you can fight for the win

♟Tarrasch Variation (3.Nd2): go for a solid, maneuvering game or open, tactical one that will take White by surprise - both are covered for your preference

♟Normal Variation (3.Nc3): Take your pick against White’s most solid try: the dynamic Classical Variation (3…Nf6), aggressive and wild Winawer (3...Bb4), the super-solid Rubinstein (3...dxe4) or from the 2022 course update the McCutcheon or Burn Variation - all of which are covered so you can find what suits your style and play it with perfection

♟Turn the tables on White’s sideline attempts: shut down all sideline attacks like the Wing Gambit, Labourdonnais Variation, (2.f4) Schlechter Variation (3.Bd3) and more

Built with the Improving Player at Heart

In addition to the theory chapters, you’ll get model games showing you how the pros put these plans in action, and a dedicated tactics chapter with over 125 tactical puzzles to keep you sharp. You’ll even get a Quickstarter chapter highlighting the most critical lines so you can start playing the French right away.

On a mission to create the best French course out there, NM Tillis has continually expanded and updated his course to answer user questions and keep the lines fresh and viable for the 2020s and beyond. “Support level: high” is an understatement for this course!

And you definitely want to get the video course for this one: NM Tillis is a true master at presenting these concepts in an engaging, easy-to-learn way so you can get the variations down pat in a fraction of the time. You’ll quickly see why he’s one of the strongest coaches out there - and why so many of his students have produced strong results in national tournaments!

Put that altogether, and you have a French Defense course you can rely on for many years of upset victories against 1.e4 - get Master the French Defense and see for yourself today.