“The good news for many French exponents is that Miedema doesn’t disappoint, the backbone of his repertoire for Black being highly complex. Coverage is extremely up-to-date, as well as complete and features plenty of unplayed improvements for Black.” ~ Chess Magazine May 2019.
The Winawer variation of the French is reached after 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4. This is one of the most exciting openings in the game. It’s an alternative universe with alternative rules. In return for the Bishop Black gets a rock solid pawn structure and lots of dynamic capabilities. It should not come as a surprise that in these unbalanced fights Black can really play for a win. The groundwork was done by Nimzowitsch, Botvinnik and Kortchnoi in the old days. Nowadays players like Carlsen, So and Mamedyarov still use their ideas with success. People often ask, “does true love exist?” Well, Miedema and the French might be one of those rare examples. Fortunately the love has translated to countless novelties and fighting lines. This is his first volume on the French defence and his debut as an author.
