LeelaRookOdds's French defense

LeelaRookOdds is a bot you can play on Lichess that plays without a rook. You can play it yourself at https://lichess.org/@/LeelaRookOdds. Famously, Hikaru has played and lost against this bot several times (here are the YouTube videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7N4qC1znDc (1h video) and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sf9U92h3tf0). The bot basically plays anti-human chess. Today I'm going to be exploring what LeelaRookOdds plays as the white pieces against the French defense!

LeelaRookOdds' most common first move is e4 and therefore has also faced the French Defense many times. After e6, d4, d5, it unsurprisingly chooses to go to the advanced variation most often since it closes down the position and keeps more pieces on the board.

Leela chooses the advanced variation most of the time because it keeps more pieces on the board and attacking chances against Black's kingside.

c5 is the principled move, after which Leela chooses the standard c3 reply, and after Nc6 Nf3, we reach this position.

The most played move by players playing against LeelaRookOdds is cxd4, which is not a good move because it allows the b1 knight to go to c3 quite quickly, which, as we will see, is quite problematic for Black. cxd4 Nge7 Nc3 Nf5 a3!? The point is Qb6 is met by Na4, meeting Qa5+ with either b4 or even Bd2, some variations where black cannot play Bb4 and must retreat the queen back.

The most played move is Be7 after a3, with the idea to short castle. However, this move leaves the g7 pawn unguarded, and h4! and Bd3! are two pawn sacrifices that come to mind. Leela likes the idea of sacrificing the pawn with h4 instead of Bd3, but I guess it's a matter of taste. After h4, the best move for Black is to go Bd7, which nobody has ever played against LeelaRookOdds out of the 15 games that reached this position. Let's look at the other alternatives:
Nxh4?? Nxh4 Bxh4 Qg4!
f6? was played in 4 of the games and is met by g4! (Actually Nxd4!! is a sound sacrifice: Stockfish evaluates it as slightly better for White.) Nh6?? exf6! Bxf6 g5 with a fork.

h5 is logical, but the pawn can be a weakness if Black castles. After g3 there are many interesting options for Black. Here is a high-level game:
h6, h5: Leela plays Be2 and 0-0 and plays for the long-term attack against Black's king.
Some French players play Qb6 instead against LeelaRookOdds.
As White, Leelarookodds plays three different moves.
Here are Leelas moves and scores from this position:

Because of the number of different good moves LeelaRookOdds plays, we will analyze all of them (albeit briefly, especially the Be2 move).
Let's start with the most played: a3. This move will usually transpose to the previous cxd4 variation where, after cxd4 Nge7 Nc3 Nf5 Na4, there is a transposition. Ideas for white are h4, g4, Bd3, etc. with a very simple game. While cxd4 is the most played after a3, it's only played 28% of the time. Let's now analyze the top engine suggestion: Nh6 for Black!

After a3 Nh6, Leela only plays Bd3, after which most games continue cxd4 0-0. This turns out to also be the top engine suggestion by normal Leela Chess Zero with no rook odds. Surprisingly enough, no one has ever accepted the gambit with dxc3, instead opting to either develop with Bd7 (played two times) or Nf5 (played eight times). After Nf5, Leela has tried g4 Nh6 h3; here is a good one:

. If instead of Nh6 there is Nge7, Leela tries cxd4, Bd7, Kg2!? Nxd4 Be3 Nec6 b4 h5 g5 a6 g6 with an uncomfortable position for black in Instead of Nf5, some players have tried Bd7, where Leela, out of 7 games, has always played c4?!?! Very weird move! dxc4 was most often played by Black with a transposition to 5 more games. One of those games i really liked where Leela played the tricks-only move Qf1: .
Let's analyze Bd3 briefly: After the main line Bd3 Bd7 dxc5 Bxc5 0-0, the most played move is Nge7, losing the bishop to b4. But the second most played move, a5, doesn't lose material. Now Leela likes Qe2. I have realized Leela often likes to bring her queen early in king pawn openings because there is no rook to take after a fork on c2. This isn't really the same thing but is worth noting. The game really speaks for itself and should be analyzed.
Bd7 also deserved a brief analysis: is my analysis lol.
Also be2: cxd4 cxd4 Nge7 Nc3 Nf5 Na4?! Qa5+ Nc3 with this game for example There are many games you can analyze yourself if you want.
Another interesting continuation is instead of Nf3, going to a3?! Which Leela plays around 15% of the time and usually transposes to the Nf3 lines: a3 Qb6 Nf3 cxd4 cxd4 Nge7 Nc3 Nf5 Na4 transposition. The so-called refutation to a3 is by not transposing to the Nf3 lines. The best moves are f6, Nh6 or Nge7. Quite a high-level game example of what Leela plays against f6. The Nh6 usually transposes too: is a good example of this.
What is similar about all these lines is that Leela focuses on playing against human-intuitive ideas and always gets into attacking positions against the opponent's king.
Now I will show you a game of perfect play (Black) vs. LeelaRookOdds with White. I found this game on the database of Black playing always the top engine moves, so here it is: .
Finally, let's look at some more games I found interesting: is the Winawer variation of the French. also but slightly different and another: .
last game with a weird variation: and Black was tricked in .