Unbalanced: The French Winawer for Black

Get your opponent walking the tightrope with the Winawer - a new repertoire for players who want to fight for a win as Black right out of the opening.

The Winawer is a super-sharp variation of the French Defense that starts 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4. Bb4 is the key move that makes it the French Winawer.

Mad, bad and dangerous to play - but not with this

The Winawer has a reputation of being sharp, dangerous, and risky. This reputation is well deserved and this repertoire will give you a way of keeping the game under control and familiar even as you and your opponent walk a tight rope.

White can choose to avoid the sharpest lines, and if they do so this repertoire will help you take advantage of White shying away from some of the bite in this opening by giving you long term positional plans for Black also.

This is an in-depth course with 150+ lines, 18 master games, and a whole chapter of thematic tactics from Winawer games.

Clear strategic ideas - with a bit of needle!

While there is a lot to learn, I have broken down the ideas so that beginners and advanced players alike can add this dangerous weapon to their repertoire with the black pieces.

I created it through personal tournament experience and careful research. I started playing the Winawer about seven years ago when I was about 1350 elo and it been my main weapon since then for my journey into the 2000s elo. I include some of my games to help illustrate concepts throughout.

The ideas and plans are straightforward enough for casual players to grasp and use, but deep and rich enough for stronger players to dive into and gain value from the book as well.

I hope you'll enjoy this course and have some great fights in the French Winawer (Unbalanced).