Chess Codex
Tree path 12 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 › French Defense: Winawer Variation, Poisoned Pawn Variation › French Defense: Winawer Variation, Poisoned Pawn Variation Declined
  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. French Defense: Winawer Variation, Poisoned Pawn Variation C18
  13. French Defense: Winawer Variation, Poisoned Pawn Variation Declined C18 you are here
C18

French Defense: Winawer Variation, Poisoned Pawn Variation Declined

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Overview

French Defense: Winawer Variation, Poisoned Pawn Variation Declined 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.

It begins with 15 plies and takes 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e5 c5 5. a3 Bxc3+ 6. bxc3 Ne7 7. Qg4 Qc7 8. Bd3 to reach the canonical position.

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

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
15
Parent
French Defense: Winawer Variation, Poisoned Pawn Variation

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

22,519 games · White 49.9% / Draw 5.4% / Black 44.7%

MovesGamesW / D / B
cxd414,350
c44,378
Nbc62,067
O-O370
g6248
h5222
Qa5198
Ng6167

Source: Lichess Opening Explorer · cached 2026-09-26 03:05:09

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Related variations at the same level

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

https://chesscodex.org/openings/french-defense-winawer-variation-poisoned-pawn-variation-declined