Tree path 6 levels King's Pawn Game › King's Knight Opening › Philidor Defense › Philidor Defense › Exchange Variation › Philidor Defense: Exchange Variation
- Chess Codex
- King's Pawn Game C20
- King's Knight Opening C40
- Philidor Defense C41
- Philidor Defense C41
- Exchange Variation C41
- Philidor Defense: Exchange Variation C41 you are here
Philidor Defense: Exchange Variation
Overview
Philidor Defense: Exchange Variation is a variation within the Open Games family, indexed as ECO C41.
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 e5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 exd4 4. Nxd4, after 7 plies of opening development.
It is a variation of Philidor Defense: Exchange Variation, which itself descends from the root opening King's Pawn Game.
It branches into 3 notable variations — Philidor Defense: Exchange Variation, Philidor Defense: Larsen Variation, Philidor Defense: Paulsen Attack.
In total, the branch covers 4 sub-variations across all depths.
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
- C41
- Group
- Open Games (C)
- Plies
- 7
- Direct variations
- 3
- Total in subtree
- 4
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
9,260,511 games · White 52.3% / Draw 4.9% / Black 42.8%
| Moves | Games | W / D / B |
|---|---|---|
| Nf6 | 3,483,723 | |
| Be7 | 1,673,019 | |
| c5 | 1,142,800 | |
| Nc6 | 878,791 | |
| Bd7 | 713,937 | |
| g6 | 339,233 | |
| h6 | 324,852 | |
| a6 | 142,077 |
Source: Lichess Opening Explorer · cached 2026-09-26 01:38:42
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