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, Retreat Variation › Armenian Line

C17

French Defense: Winawer Variation, Retreat Variation, Armenian Line

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Overview

French Defense: Winawer Variation, Retreat Variation, Armenian Line is a variation within the Open Games family, indexed as ECO C17.

The Open Games group covers open games — classical 1.e4 e5 openings where both sides contest the centre directly with pawns.

It begins with 12 plies and takes 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e5 c5 5. a3 Ba5 6. b4 cxd4 to reach the canonical position.

It is a variation of French Defense: Winawer Variation, Retreat 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: C17
Group: Open Games (C)
Plies: 12
Parent: French Defense: Winawer Variation, Retreat Variation

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Statistics from Lichess

44,495 games · White 44.1% / Draw 6.4% / Black 49.5%

Moves	Games	W / D / B
Nb5	30,655
Qg4	5,351
bxa5	4,485
Qxd4	3,640
Nce2	168
Na4	57
Nxd5	52
b5	35

Source: Lichess Opening Explorer · cached 2026-09-26 02:38:08

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