I can recommend certain principles in the exchange variation, though I don't know if Jesse will approve. I recommend two principles. First, try to answer each move that White plays with a different move that's just as good. For example if White plays 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. exd5 exd5 4. Nf3 you can play 4... Bd6 because that's different from bringing your king's knight out but just as good. Second, you try to use the advantage of going second by playing a move that your opponent, going first and committing himself without knowledge of what you would play, has just promised not to punish in the best way. For example if White goes 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. exd5 exd5 4. Bd3, you can play 4... c5, bearing in mind that d3 is not the most threatening position for the bishop against an isolated d-pawn, or you can play 4... Nc6, bearing in mind that White promised not to pin your knight at c6 in one move. (He can only play Bb5 in two moves.) Again, you don't want to play a bad move or a weird move, just the normal move that might make the player of White feel that if he had known you wanted to play that he might have picked something different on his previous move. These two principles might not work for you but they work for me. If you try them and like them, you might find that French Defense Exchange Variation games don't stay "drawish" for long.

The best piece of advice I have received from a KZfaq comment in a long time. Thanks a lot, can't wait to try out your method!

You can always castle long if you're afraid of a boring position.

Usually Black plays ...c7-c6 and your Knight on c3 is just in the way of your Rooks (minority attack); eventually you'll have to move it. Or you might play the exchange variation and go for Ne2 followed by f2-f3 and either a central push e3-e4 or a Kingside push g2-g4 - in this case you're giving up your King Knight's happiness, because it's not doing anything on e2.

@@wreynolds1995 in the first example i maneuver my knight from c3. In the second example i maneuver my knight from e2 to g3 where it controls the e4 break.

@@billagap3213 The fact that you know what to do doesn't mean your Knights are good. It means you know how to fix them. The fact that they need to be fixed implies that there's something sub-par to begin with!

@@wreynolds1995 yeah you're right. But i mean in queen's gambit the pieces are generally more mobile than in other openings.

@@billagap3213 I must admit I do agree, though I still play 1.e4 myself.

The French is an opening where there is a major divide between Winawer and Classical players because you rarely see French players play both options. The more strategically minded players do not want to deal with the fireworks that can arise from the Poison Pawn variations, and they may find it off-putting to give up the Bf8 bishop leaving themselves with the problem cleric on c8.

You can't possibly study all the fireworks that come out of the winawer variation. I have never ever seen identical winawer games. Most games end up with no player castling 😅😅complete madness. Also i don't like giving up the dark square bishop.