Rating: 
Summary: The most biased opening book I have ever seen.
Review: After hearing all the raves about this book, I have been sorely disappointed in it, for two reasons. First, the production value of Cadogan/Everyman is completely shoddy. This book falls apart on repeated use. Second, and more importantly, the coverage is so slanted toward black that one senses an utter lack of objectivity on Watson's part. He would have you believe, by his annotations, that the most white can ever get is = in any line. There are entire sections of this book where, according to Watson, white cannot even equalize! Look at his Winawer sections; he does not cite a single game where white had an edge. This type of bias has no place in a work that is otherwise of decent scholarly quality. Readers generally rip books that are one-sided, the type of "winning with..." book that makes it seem that you cannot lose with an opening. Watson does that, big time, in this book. It seems that white has no prayer for more than equality. Such a conclusion is patently absurd. Does black win more with the French than the Sicilian? I think not. Why is the Sicilian played so much more often than the French? The French is fine, but Watson doesn't mention any downside to it in this book. It is all about black having advantages in the main lines. That conlcusion is bogus, as white will always have a slight advantage with correct play by both sides in the main lines of any opening.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent for learning the French!
Review: An excellent work. Shows you how to play the defense and not memorize opening lines. Only downside is John hasn't published a 3rd edition. Check out his "Secrets of Modern Chess Strategy" too. It is another well-written book that successfully challenges dogmatic concepts previously considered sacrosanct.
Rating:
Summary: One Of The Best French Books, One Of The Best Authors
Review: Highly regarded author John Watson has updated a classic work. Unlike other repertoire books, he offers the reader a choice of two or three systems which one can play against each main line. Watson covers, in a dozen well-organized clear chapters, the following main lines: Advance, Exchange, King's Indian Attack, Tarrasch (3 chapters), Winawer (5 chapters), Second Move Odds & Ends. NOTE: He does not cover the Classical French (1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 Nc3 Nf6) or the MacCutcheon Variation (1 e4 e6 2 Nc3 Nf6 3 Bg5) but then this is a repertoire book against 1 e4 and not a section of ECO. Watson discusses ideas through variations and move orders with short comments rather than using lengthy prose summaries. So, less experienced players may want something a bit more tutorial oriented - like Mastering The French With The Read And Play Method, which has lengthy discussions of basic goals, reasons for move orders, pawn structures, etc. Don't be put off though, Watson's book is tightly organized and practical for just about everyone.
Rating:
Summary: So what it's purple? It's a GREAT book!
Review: I don't know which is more irritating...the color of the cover or the attitude of the reader who judges the book by the author's behavior in one tournament game. Will we trash "My Great Predecessors" because Garry Kasparov whined and acted like a crybaby on more than one occasion? Get over it, dude. This is a GREAT book. I do have a couple of minor criticisms, mainly because this is a "repertoire" book and I play a couple of lines that Watson doesn't (and therefore are not in the book), like the Main Line Classical (without the Burn/Rubinstein stuff) and 4...Nc6 in the 4.Nf3 Exchange line. But Watson's coverage is good and you can find lots of stuff to arm yourself with in your tournament encounters. The book is worth its weight in gold. Or purple...
Rating:
Summary: So what it's purple? It's a GREAT book!
Review: I don't know which is more irritating...the color of the cover or the attitude of the reader who judges the book by the author's behavior in one tournament game. Will we trash "My Great Predecessors" because Garry Kasparov whined and acted like a crybaby on more than one occasion? Get over it, dude. This is a GREAT book. I do have a couple of minor criticisms, mainly because this is a "repertoire" book and I play a couple of lines that Watson doesn't (and therefore are not in the book), like the Main Line Classical (without the Burn/Rubinstein stuff) and 4...Nc6 in the 4.Nf3 Exchange line. But Watson's coverage is good and you can find lots of stuff to arm yourself with in your tournament encounters. The book is worth its weight in gold. Or purple...
Rating:
Summary: Excellent revision of earlier strong efforts
Review: I have been an e4 player as White since I began playing chess, and I have searched high and low for a good weapon against the French. This latest edition of Watson's classic opening repertoire book convinced me to just give up and start playing the French myself! I have always been an attacking player and always thought the supposedly stodgy opening just wasn't for me. But Watson's repertoire turns it into a great attacking line. Even in the Exchange Variation, which often discourages people who hate draws from considering this opening, he has many ideas to make the game interesting for the second player. I have since looked at some of his games (which you can find in the ChessBase Database online, for example) and I see that he practices what he preaches, often devoloping wonderfully speculative attacks along the f-file after the f6 break, for example. Granted, this book has some of the standard problems of coverage that you find with any repertoire book. It is focused mostly on the Winawer system. But it does a lot more than most, offering at least two lines of play (such as both the popular 3...c5 and the new 3...Be7!? against the Tarrasch Variation) where most books stop at one and at least covering other lines even when they don't seem to fit the system he proposes. You get an excellent chapter on the currently popular Burn variation, for example, that offers more coverage than any other works I've seen, yet Watson clearly prefers the Winawer. I'm also impressed by how much he has done to improve his work to keep it up to date and even ahead of theory to some extent. I own the second edition and have looked at the first, and I must say that this is one of the most impressive revisions I've ever seen. Watson is not only up-to-date but ahead of theory in many places and so this is a must for anyone playing the French from either side of the board.
Rating:
Summary: I hate this book!
Review: I'll give the author five stars for sheer audacity. But I hate this book. First of all, it is purple. Of all the colors, they made it purple!. More importantly, the author is that selfsame person who rudely refused to resign when I played him in a tournament game in 1998. Said something about being a rook up, and punched his clock a bit brusquely, AS THOUGH I WAS THE ONE BEING RUDE. Naturally, I was so upset I wasn't able to find a continuation of the promising attack I am still sure I had. All I had to do was slip my king back to my side of the board and regain a bit of material. Unfortunately, I can't find the game score. But take my word for it. John Watson is no Jack Kennedy.
Rating:
Summary: An evil little book.... : )
Review: If you are a French player who sometimes gets frustrated and feels that he/she should be getting more out of the opening than he/she is, or that you get the feeling that white shouldn't be sitting on your king but you can't quite figure out how to get him off your back, this book is for you!!! I have played the French all my life, and thought I was familiar with it.....but after buying this invaluable book, MINE EYES HAVE SEEN THE GLORY!!! I never realized what a bitter, nasty, spiteful defense the French can be when used correctly...learn how, and BUY THIS NOW!!! After learning this, there is nothing, NOTHING, white can do to stifle your counterplay. Exchange variation? JUNK ...Kings Indian Attack? TRASH ...you'll pray white plays 1.e4 and bashes his brains out on a wall of pawns afterwards as you dart in and out, hacking up his center. Love this book? I live this book...trust me, seriously, give up the memorization of a billion book lines in the sicilian and all the surprise weapons white pulls...its not worth it...play the French secure in the fact white can do nothing to surprise you...you will learn there is are very few curveballs white can toss at you...safer than the sicilian, less to memorize, and with EVIL counterplay...I made a 2000 rated ICC player change his repertoire with the knowledge contained in this book, he swore off 3.nc3 after repeated thrashings in the Winawer....convert to the French and BUY THIS BOOK!!!!!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: The previous edition was better...
Review: IM Watson did a lot of good for my opening and helped me to repair the lines against the Tarrasch variation, get over my irritation when facing the exchange variation, understand better how to outplay the advance variation and render inocuous the KIA. That was the second edition... On the third edition I found new material to update the previous book but instead of the main line in the Winawer he recomends castling instead of allowing White to grab the g-pawn... What a waste! Objectively speaking the line that Watson recommends in the third edition is as good but this chapter is not consistent with the deviations on the fourth and fifth move of the Winawer where in some of the lines White allows Black to grab the g7 pawn. This in itself, with so much material to digest, should confuse the reader. It is great to present new ideas and material to justify a third edition but, seriously, IM Watson should have kept the original frame of the repertoire. In the Tarrasch almost everything changed and instead of the principled 3...Nf6 Watson works the 3...Be7 variation. Honestly, I don't see a reason to even experiment with this move when White could very well steer the game towards dubious variations for Black and where the very principles of 3...Nf6 need to be used (Watson even shows such a possibility.) Why not continue working on a system that is proven good and not try to come up with exotic ideas that are not principled and only have shock value? All in all the Tarrasch section with the 3...Be7 move makes me wonder if Watson sat down in front of the computer, opened chessbase and tried to come up with something totally different from the usual stuff. After gathering these games he wrote some prose justifying the move and came up with a system against the Tarrasch... This single chapter shows how a database and some chess engine can make authors lazy. I have purchased books that have left me disappointed because of the author's abuse of a database with statistics and engines to revive lines or come up with some contribution to theory. The chapter on the 3...Be7 in the Tarrasch in Watson's book is regretably one of these very rare instances when I would like to burn a chess book. Ah! And the difference in writing style and quality between the 3...Be7 chapter and 3...c5 + ...Qxd5 is glaring. While the latter was written with care the previous was just sloppy. The lines with the exchange variation, the KIA and the remaining material are about the same as the previous edition. Is it worth getting this book? I am afraid not... The second edition of Watson's "Play the French" showed more work and craft and I am happy with that book. The third edition? Sorry... It was just not as good as the previous... I don't care if a book has blunders in the analyses. I don't care if it has not been computer checked. What I do care to see are explanations, ideas, lots of diagrams, reasoning behind moves, a personal touch in writing style and something I would not come up by staring at a computer screen by cranking up Fritz or chessbase. If you can get the previous edition go for it. The third edition is just not as good...
Rating:
Summary: Ideas and, yes, variations!
Review: It is very, very refreshing to see an openings book so specialized and thorough as this one. Watson shows what's going on in addition to providing variations for whatever you are likely to find playing the French: 1. Advance Variation
2. Exchange Variation
3. Tarrasch
4. Winnawer
5. King's Indian Attack In that sense the book provides you with a repertoire in the French full of VARIATIONS and IDEAS. Biased? Of course! Objective? You bet! Watson goes as far as telling me, the reader, what was inaccurate in the previous edition of his book! He also encourages me to review other treatises in French in those analyses that he deems incomplete! He warns the reader when he is presenting untested ideas! Can you ask for more? Despite not having the title "Win with the French" or "Beat anybody with the French" I can say that the text is very, very geared towards showing paths where black can get, if not an advantage, at least a pleasant position from which it will be easy to play. I am happy with this book and will never cease to come back to it for advice and study. Very independent treatise, very personal, very honest and very objective. Ah! This is nothing like a database dump... Is more than that and I can see that Watson did play through each and every line when writing the book.
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