Chess Codex
Tree path 11 levels French Defense › Normal Variation › French Defense › Paulsen Variation › French Defense: Winawer Variation › Advance Variation › French Defense: Winawer Variation, Advance Variation › French Defense: Winawer Variation, Advance Variation › French Defense: Winawer Variation, Advance Variation › French Defense: Winawer Variation, Advance Variation › with Bd3
  1. Chess Codex
  2. French Defense C00
  3. Normal Variation C00
  4. French Defense C00
  5. Paulsen Variation C10
  6. French Defense: Winawer Variation C15
  7. Advance Variation C16
  8. French Defense: Winawer Variation, Advance Variation C17
  9. French Defense: Winawer Variation, Advance Variation C17
  10. French Defense: Winawer Variation, Advance Variation C18
  11. French Defense: Winawer Variation, Advance Variation C18
  12. with Bd3 C18 you are here
C18

French Defense: Winawer Variation, Advance Variation, with Bd3

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Overview

French Defense: Winawer Variation, Advance Variation, with Bd3 is a variation within the Open Games family, indexed as ECO C18.

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 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e5 c5 5. a3 Bxc3+ 6. bxc3 Ne7 7. Bd3, after 13 plies of opening development.

It is a variation of French Defense: Winawer Variation, Advance Variation, which itself descends from the root opening French Defense.

It branches into 2 notable variations — French Defense: Winawer Variation, Advance Variation, with Bd3, French Defense: Winawer Variation, Positional Variation.

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
C18
Group
Open Games (C)
Plies
13
Parent
French Defense: Winawer Variation, Advance Variation
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

30,066 games · White 47.6% / Draw 4.8% / Black 47.5%

MovesGamesW / D / B
Nbc69,357
Qc74,941
c44,799
Qa54,510
b62,425
Bd71,679
O-O1,137
cxd4635

Source: Lichess Opening Explorer · cached 2026-09-26 02:48:40

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Variations (2)

Related variations at the same level

Sister lines that share the same parent French Defense: Winawer Variation, Advance Variation:

https://chesscodex.org/openings/french-defense-winawer-variation-advance-variation-with-bd3