French Defense: Advance Variation, Milner-Barry Gambit
The Milner-Barry Gambit is a gambit line of the Advance Variation of the French: 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Nc6 5.Nf3 Qb6 6.Bd3. Read the guide
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Statistics from Lichess
2,164,476 games: White 50.3% / Draw 4.2% / Black 45.5%
| Next move | Games | White / Draw / BlackW / D / B |
|---|---|---|
| 1,123,9671.1M | ||
| 764,137764K | ||
| 129,273129K | ||
| 70,93571K | ||
| 23,51324K | ||
| 20,08020K | ||
| 6,6846,684 | ||
| 5,7675,767 |
Rated Lichess games between players rated 1600 to 2500, from the Lichess opening explorer, updated Nov 1, 2026
Engine evaluation
+0.16 The position is about equal
Best play: 6... cxd4 7. O-O Bd7 8. Re1 Nge7 9. a3 Rc8 10. b4 dxc3 11. Nxc3
Stockfish 19, depth 30, after the line's last move. Scores are in pawns, from White's side.
By rating
Rating changes little here: White scores 51% under 1400, 53% at 2200 and up and 54% in master games (wins plus half the draws).
| Players | Games | White / Draw / BlackW / D / B |
|---|---|---|
| Under 1400 | 124K | |
| 1400–1799 | 798K | |
| 1800–2199 | 1.4M | |
| 2200 and up | 217K | |
| Masters, over the board | 779 |
Master games
- Vachier Lagrave, M. – Ponkratov, P.
- Van Foreest, J. – Bauer, C.
- Mamedov, R. – Bluebaum, M.
- Sulskis, S. – Giri, A.
- Kryvoruchko, Y. – Christiansen, J.
Rated blitz, rapid and classical Lichess games by rating band, and over-the-board games of players rated 2200+ from the Lichess masters database, updated Sep 26, 2026
Description
The Milner-Barry Gambit is a gambit line of the Advance Variation of the French: 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Nc6 5.Nf3 Qb6 6.Bd3. White develops the bishop instead of protecting d4, and offers the d-pawn for quick development and an attack.
Origins
The gambit is named after Sir Stuart Milner-Barry (1906–1995), a British chess player and writer who represented England at the Chess Olympiads of 1937 and 1939. He won the first British Boys' Championship in 1923 and was later the chess correspondent of The Times. During the Second World War he worked as a codebreaker at Bletchley Park, from autumn 1943 heading Hut 6, which decrypted German Army and Air Force Enigma messages. Four opening variations carry his name.
Main lines
The main line continues 6...cxd4 7.cxd4 Bd7 8.O-O Nxd4 9.Nxd4 Qxd4 10.Nc3. Black is a pawn up.
- If Black takes a second pawn with 10...Qxe5, White gets an attack with 11.Re1 Qb8 12.Nxd5, or 11...Qd6 12.Nb5.
- On move seven Black must not grab the pawn at once: 7...Nxd4 8.Nxd4 Qxd4 loses the queen to 9.Bb5+, a discovered attack on the queen from the queen on d1.
The numbers
On Lichess White wins 50.3% of the 2.2 million games and Black 45.5%. The split hardly moves with rating: 50.1% against 47.1% under 1400, and 49.7% against 44.6% from 2200 up. In 779 master games over the board White won 40.1%, Black 32.2%, and 27.7% were drawn.
Suggest an improvement or report a mistake
How to play against the French Defense: Advance Variation, Milner-Barry Gambit
6…Nge7 scores best for Black: 48.6%, with Black winning 46.5% and White 49.3% of 129K games. The most played answer, 6…Bd7, scores lowest: 47.3% in 1.1M games. Stockfish's first choice is 6…cxd4.
Main answers: those played in at least 5% of these games. Score: Black's wins plus half the draws, in rated Lichess games between players rated 1600 to 2500. How to play against other popular openings
Popularity by year
The French Defense: Advance Variation, Milner-Barry Gambit has gained ground since 2016: 0.089% of Lichess games in 2025, up from 0.072%.
Numbers by year
| Year | Share of games | Games |
|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 0.072% | 25,580 |
| 2017 | 0.088% | 48,631 |
| 2018 | 0.096% | 75,113 |
| 2019 | 0.087% | 108,929 |
| 2020 | 0.083% | 242,659 |
| 2021 | 0.072% | 282,306 |
| 2022 | 0.079% | 297,135 |
| 2023 | 0.088% | 330,695 |
| 2024 | 0.087% | 313,502 |
| 2025 | 0.089% | 308,456 |
| 2026 (Jan–Apr) | 0.087% | 95,378 |
Share of rated Lichess games between players rated 1600 to 2500 (blitz, rapid and classical) that reach this position, by year; 2026: January to April. Which openings are rising and falling
Variations (2)
All 4 named lines that continue from here
Sources
- Theory: adapted from the Wikipedia article French Defence, version of 19 October 2026, under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Stuart Milner-Barry: adapted from the Wikipedia article Stuart Milner-Barry, version of 11 August 2026, under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Results: Lichess opening explorer, figures collected from September to November 2026.
Cite this page
Caissa Codex. “French Defense: Advance Variation, Milner-Barry Gambit (C02)”. Lichess data as of 1 Nov 2026. https://chesscodex.org/openings/french-defense-advance-variation-milner-barry-gambit