Tree path 2 levels French Defense › Queen's Knight
- Chess Codex
- French Defense C00
- Queen's Knight C00 you are here
French Defense: Queen's Knight
Overview
French Defense: Queen's Knight is a named branch in the Open Games group of chess theory, classified under ECO C00.
The Open Games group covers open games — classical 1.e4 e5 openings where both sides contest the centre directly with pawns.
It begins with 3 plies and takes 1. e4 e6 2. Nc3 to reach the canonical position.
It branches immediately from French Defense in the opening tree.
2 named variations grow from this line, including French Defense: McCutcheon Variation, Duras Variation, French Defense: Pelikan Variation.
Use the board to walk through every move, check how the position has scored on Lichess, or take it head-to-head against Stockfish.
- ECO code
- C00
- Group
- Open Games (C)
- Plies
- 3
- Parent
- French Defense
- Direct variations
- 2
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
8,677,197 games · White 47.6% / Draw 4.8% / Black 47.5%
| Moves | Games | W / D / B |
|---|---|---|
| d5 | 5,641,922 | |
| c5 | 654,101 | |
| c6 | 518,368 | |
| b6 | 462,440 | |
| d6 | 342,240 | |
| Nf6 | 182,666 | |
| Bb4 | 159,355 | |
| Ne7 | 141,080 |
Source: Lichess Opening Explorer · cached 2026-09-26 00:53:53
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