French Defense
Overview
French Defense is a top-level opening within the Open Games family, catalogued as ECO C00 — a starting point from which dozens of named sub-variations branch out.
The Open Games group covers open games — classical 1.e4 e5 openings where both sides contest the centre directly with pawns.
Play reaches this position via 1. e4 e6, after 2 plies of opening development.
The line has 12 documented children — Banzai-Leong Gambit, Bird Invitation, Chigorin Variation, and others being widely played.
This is a deep theory tree with 210 total sub-variations across all depths — one of the larger branches in chess theory.
Explore the position on the interactive board, study its real-world results from Lichess, and challenge the engine when you are ready.
- ECO code
- C00
- Group
- Open Games (C)
- Plies
- 2
- Direct variations
- 12
- Total in subtree
- 210
This overview is generated automatically from the opening's metadata. Know this line well? Write a description — submissions are reviewed before publishing.
Statistics from Lichess
172,695,532 games · White 47.9% / Draw 4.9% / Black 47.2%
| Moves | Games | W / D / B |
|---|---|---|
| d4 | 91,773,073 | |
| Nf3 | 41,343,527 | |
| f4 | 8,696,647 | |
| Nc3 | 8,336,124 | |
| Bc4 | 5,475,203 | |
| d3 | 5,345,004 | |
| c4 | 3,557,538 | |
| e5 | 2,559,105 |
Source: Lichess Opening Explorer · cached 2026-09-26 00:50:16
Write a description
Markdown supported (headings ###, bold, lists, links).
Submissions are reviewed before publishing.
Variations (12)
Show all 210 sub-variations (full subtree)
Loading sub-variations…