Tree path 8 levels French Defense › Normal Variation › French Defense › Advance Variation › French Defense: Advance Variation › French Defense: Advance Variation › French Defense: Advance Variation › Paulsen Attack
French Defense: Advance Variation, Paulsen Attack
Overview
French Defense: Advance Variation, Paulsen Attack is a variation within the Open Games family, indexed as ECO C02.
The Open Games group covers open games — classical 1.e4 e5 openings where both sides contest the centre directly with pawns.
The line arises from 9 plies — specifically the moves 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 c5 4. c3 Nc6 5. Nf3.
It is a variation of French Defense: Advance Variation, which itself descends from the root opening French Defense.
It branches into 3 notable variations — French Defense: Advance Variation, Euwe Variation, French Defense: Advance Variation, Main Line, French Defense: Advance Variation, Milner-Barry Gambit.
Together the deeper variations number 8 across the full subtree.
Step through the moves on the interactive board below, review the live Lichess statistics, or play this position against Stockfish at one of six difficulty levels.
- ECO code
- C02
- Group
- Open Games (C)
- Plies
- 9
- Direct variations
- 3
- Total in subtree
- 8
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
11,264,296 games · White 46.3% / Draw 4.6% / Black 49.1%
| Moves | Games | W / D / B |
|---|---|---|
| Qb6 | 5,399,046 | |
| Bd7 | 2,278,743 | |
| cxd4 | 1,262,698 | |
| Nge7 | 1,224,620 | |
| a6 | 202,428 | |
| f6 | 182,024 | |
| Nh6 | 113,597 | |
| Qa5 | 112,000 |
Source: Lichess Opening Explorer · cached 2026-09-26 02:01:06
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Variations (3)
Show all 8 sub-variations (full subtree)
- C02 French Defense: Advance Variation, Euwe Variation 10-ply
- C02 French Defense: Advance Variation, Main Line 11-ply
- C02 French Defense: Advance Variation, Milner-Barry Gambit 11-ply
- C02 French Defense: Advance Variation, Lputian Variation 12-ply
- C02 Hector Variation 13-ply
- C02 Main Line 15-ply
- C02 French Defense: Advance Variation, Milner-Barry Gambit, Hector Variation 15-ply
- C02 French Defense: Advance Variation, Milner-Barry Gambit, Sørensen Variation 17-ply