Chess Codex
Tree path 10 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, Positional Variation
  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, Positional Variation C19 you are here
C19

French Defense: Winawer Variation, Positional Variation

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Overview

French Defense: Winawer Variation, Positional Variation is a variation within the Open Games family, indexed as ECO C19.

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 16 plies — specifically the moves 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e5 c5 5. a3 Bxc3+ 6. bxc3 Nc6 7. Nf3 Qa5 8. Bd2 Nge7.

It is a variation of French Defense: Winawer Variation, Advance 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
C19
Group
Open Games (C)
Plies
16
Parent
French Defense: Winawer Variation, Advance 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

7,465 games · White 47.0% / Draw 5.2% / Black 47.9%

MovesGamesW / D / B
Bd32,592
Be21,459
c41,303
a41,205
h4440
dxc5163
Qb1111
g376

Source: Lichess Opening Explorer · cached 2026-09-26 03:10:16

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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-positional-variation-7