French Defense: Winawer Variation, Advance Variation
The Advance Variation of the Winawer is 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5, White's normal answer to the pin on c3. Read the guide
Play any move on the board to explore from there, or step through the line with ‹ › and the arrow keys.
Statistics from Lichess
2,756,962 games: White 49.1% / Draw 5.1% / Black 45.7%
| Next move | Games | White / Draw / BlackW / D / B |
|---|---|---|
| C17 | 2,002,5182M | |
| 411,178411K | ||
| 98,25098K | ||
| French Defense: Winawer Variation, Petrosian Variation | 77,44277K | |
| 71,90972K | ||
| 31,59932K | ||
| 13,33113K | ||
| 9,3759,375 |
Rated Lichess games between players rated 1600 to 2500, from the Lichess opening explorer, updated Oct 31, 2026
Engine evaluation
+0.59 White is slightly better
Best play: 4... c5 5. a3 Ba5 6. b4 cxd4 7. Qg4 Kf8 8. Nb5 Bb6 9. Nf3
Stockfish 19, depth 30, after the line's last move. Scores are in pawns, from White's side.
By rating
The stronger the players, the worse this line does for White: White scores 55% under 1400, 51% at 2200 and up and 58% in master games (wins plus half the draws).
| Players | Games | White / Draw / BlackW / D / B |
|---|---|---|
| Under 1400 | 118K | |
| 1400–1799 | 499K | |
| 1800–2199 | 1.6M | |
| 2200 and up | 760K | |
| Masters, over the board | 25K |
Master games
- Aronian, L. – Carlsen, M.
- Caruana, F. – So, W.
- Karjakin, S. – Carlsen, M.
- Caruana, F. – Nepomniachtchi, I.
- Caruana, F. – Carlsen, M.
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 Advance Variation of the Winawer is 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5, White's normal answer to the pin on c3. White clarifies the centre for the moment, gains space and hopes to show that Black's bishop is misplaced on b4. The Winawer, named after Szymon Winawer and pioneered by Aron Nimzowitsch and Mikhail Botvinnik, is one of the main systems of the French Defense.
The main line
Play usually continues 4...c5 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 Ne7. White now has doubled pawns on the queenside, which are the basis of Black's counterplay, but they also strengthen White's centre and open the b-file. White has more space on the kingside, where Black is weaker than usual after giving up the dark-squared bishop, and together with the bishop pair this gives White attacking chances, though the long-term features of the pawn structure favour Black. Instead of 6...Ne7 Black can play 6...Qc7, 6...Qa5, a recently popular choice, or occasionally 6...Nc6.
White's seventh move
- 7.Qg4 is the most common move and invites great tactical complications, since Black's bishop no longer defends g7. Black can give up two kingside pawns with 7...Qc7 8.Qxg7 Rg8 9.Qxh7 cxd4 and destroy White's centre in return, the Poisoned Pawn Variation, or play 7...O-O, or the more recent 7...Kf8. Judit Polgár is an expert on 7.Qg4, and Garry Kasparov has also played it.
- 7.Nf3 and 7.a4 are good positional alternatives. 7.a4 prepares Ba3 and stops Black from attacking c2 with ...Qa5–a4 or ...Bd7–a4; Vasily Smyslov and Bobby Fischer both used it with success.
- 7.h4 is a more aggressive try, aiming to push the pawn to h6 or to bring the rook into play via h3.
Against the quieter lines Black can often attack with ...O-O-O, usually combined with ...c4 to close the queenside and ...f6 to open the kingside.
Other fifth moves
After 4...c5 5.a3 Black can keep the pin with 5...Ba5, sometimes called the Armenian Variation because players from that country, most notably Rafael Vaganian, have enriched its theory. White usually answers 6.b4 cxb4 and then 7.Qg4 or 7.Nb5. White can also deviate on move 5 with 5.Qg4, 5.dxc5, 5.Nf3 or 5.Bd2. On move 4, 4...Ne7 usually transposes to the main line, while 4...b6 and 4...Qd7 are considered better for White.
The numbers
On Lichess White wins 49.1% of the 2.8 million games and Black 45.7%. Under 1400 White's lead is larger, 53.6% against 42.8%. In 24,645 master games over the board White won 38.8%, Black 23.3%, and 37.9% were drawn.
Suggest an improvement or report a mistake
How to play against the French Defense: Winawer Variation, Advance Variation
The most played answer, 4…c5, also scores best for Black: 48.8%, with Black winning 46.3% and White 48.6% of 2M games. Of the main answers, 4…Ne7 scores lowest: 48.8%. Stockfish's first choice is also 4…c5.
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: Winawer Variation, Advance Variation has lost ground since 2016: 0.097% of Lichess games in 2025, down from 0.14% (its peak: 0.17% in 2018).
Numbers by year
| Year | Share of games | Games |
|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 0.14% | 49,612 |
| 2017 | 0.16% | 88,464 |
| 2018 | 0.17% | 133,935 |
| 2019 | 0.14% | 173,822 |
| 2020 | 0.13% | 381,901 |
| 2021 | 0.1% | 394,434 |
| 2022 | 0.093% | 349,228 |
| 2023 | 0.096% | 362,858 |
| 2024 | 0.093% | 333,019 |
| 2025 | 0.097% | 337,194 |
| 2026 (Jan–Apr) | 0.095% | 104,417 |
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 (3)
All 40 named lines that continue from here
No line matches.
- C17 Advance Variation 4 moves
- C19 Smyslov Variation 7 moves
- C16 French Defense: Winawer Variation, Petrosian Variation 4 moves
- C17 Advance Variation 5 moves
- C17 Moscow Variation 5 moves
- C19 Smyslov Variation 7 moves
- C17 French Defense: Winawer Variation, Bogoljubow Variation 5 moves
- C18 Advance Variation 6 moves
- C17 Icelandic Defense 6 moves
- C17 French Defense: Winawer Variation, Maróczy-Wallis Variation 6 moves
- C17 French Defense: Winawer Variation, Retreat Variation 5 moves
- C17 French Defense: Winawer Variation, Advance Variation 7 moves
- C18 Advance Variation 6 moves
- C18 French Defense: Winawer Variation, Classical Variation 6 moves
- C18 French Defense: Winawer Variation, Portisch-Hook Variation 6 moves
- C19 French Defense: Winawer Variation, Positional Variation 7 moves
- C19 French Defense: Winawer Variation, Positional Variation 8 moves
- C17 Armenian Line 6 moves
- C18 with Bd3 7 moves
- C18 with h4 7 moves
- C18 French Defense: Winawer Variation, Eingorn Variation 7 moves
- C18 French Defense: Winawer Variation, Poisoned Pawn Variation 7 moves
- C18 French Defense: Winawer Variation, Poisoned Pawn Variation 8 moves
- C19 French Defense: Winawer Variation, Positional Variation 8 moves
- C19 French Defense: Winawer Variation, Positional Variation 7 moves
- C18 French Defense: Winawer Variation, Warsaw Variation 7 moves
- C18 with Bd3 7 moves
- C18 with h4 7 moves
- C18 Poisoned Pawn Variation 9 moves
- C18 French Defense: Winawer Variation, Poisoned Pawn Variation Declined 8 moves
- C18 Main Line 10 moves
- C18 Paoli Variation 10 moves
- C19 French Defense: Winawer Variation, Positional Variation 8 moves
- C19 Positional Variation 9 moves
- C19 Positional Variation 9 moves
- C19 Positional Variation 7 moves
- C19 Positional Variation 9 moves
- C19 Positional Variation 9 moves
- C19 Positional Variation 9 moves
- C19 Positional Variation 8 moves
Sources
- History and theory: adapted from the Wikipedia article French Defence, version of 19 October 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: Winawer Variation, Advance Variation (C16)”. Lichess data as of 31 Oct 2026. https://chesscodex.org/openings/french-defense-winawer-variation-advance-variation