Hi Friends,

I have a doubt in the French Defence Tarrasch Variation. Usually, I play this Variation as Black with the Main Line being 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 Nf6 4.e5 Nfd7 5.Bd3 c5 6.c3 Nc6 7.Ne2 cxd4 8.cxd4 f6 9.exf6 Nxf6 10.O-O Bd6 11.Nf3 Qc7 12.Bg5 0-0 etc. But since recently, some of my opponents have started deviating on the 12th move with 12.Nc3 instead of 12.Bg5.

In John Emms book on "The French Tarrasch" published in the year 2000, he suggests a6, giving the following explanation:

"The White Knight heads for the Queen side, gaining a tempo because of the threat of Nb5. White's plans include Rc1 and Na4-c5, which would put the Knight on a very useful square. The flip side is that Black has a freer role to operate on the King-side, now that the squares f4 & g3 have less protection."

It's been 10 years since the book was published and theory has evolved a lot since then. I wonder what are the latest theoretical updates on this line?
Can anyone suggest as to what should be Black's best response as well as the strategy behind the resultant positions?

Thanks in Advance !

- ASHTAVAKRAGEETA