French Defense

Black plays e6 and d5 against 1. e4. The center becomes a fixed chain in many lines, with White's pawn on e5 and Black's pawn on d5. Black's light-squared bishop stays behind the chain for a while, and the counterplay is c5 and pressure on d4. Advance, Tarrasch, Winawer, and Classical are the main branches in this tree.

211 lines in the book · ECO C00 to C19 · 81,658 tagged puzzles in the source database

Play the main line

8
7
6
5
4
3
2
a1
b
c
d
e
f
g
h

French Defense

Play the next move in the line.

  1. e4
  2. e6

Move by move

  1. White pawn moves from e2 to e4.
  2. Black pawn moves from e7 to e6.

Variations

Alapin Gambit1 lines · C00Baeuerle Gambit1 lines · C00Banzai-Leong Gambit2 lines · C00Bird Invitation1 lines · C00Carlson Gambit1 lines · C00Chigorin Variation1 lines · C00Diemer-Duhm Gambit1 lines · C00Diemer-Duhm Gambit Accepted1 lines · C00Franco-Hiva Gambit1 lines · C00Franco-Hiva Gambit Accepted1 lines · C00Franco-Sicilian Defense1 lines · C00Hoffmann Gambit1 lines · C00Horwitz Attack2 lines · C00King's Indian Attack2 lines · C00Knight Variation2 lines · C00La Bourdonnais Variation2 lines · C00Mediterranean Defense1 lines · C00Morphy Gambit1 lines · C00Normal Variation1 lines · C00Orthoschnapp Gambit1 lines · C00Pelikan Variation1 lines · C00Perseus Gambit1 lines · C00Queen's Knight1 lines · C00Reversed Philidor Formation1 lines · C00Réti-Spielmann Attack1 lines · C00Schlechter Variation1 lines · C00St. George Defense5 lines · C00Steiner Variation1 lines · C00Steinitz Attack1 lines · C00Two Knights Variation1 lines · C00Wing Gambit1 lines · C00Exchange Variation6 lines · C01Advance Variation22 lines · C02Tarrasch Variation24 lines · C03 to C09Hecht-Reefschläger Variation1 lines · C10Marshall Gambit1 lines · C10Paulsen Variation1 lines · C10Rubinstein Variation7 lines · C10Classical Variation23 lines · C11 to C14Henneberger Variation1 lines · C11Steinitz Variation9 lines · C11McCutcheon Variation14 lines · C12 to C15Alekhine-Chatard Attack6 lines · C13Winawer Variation54 lines · C15 to C19

Named gambits and traps

39 lines in this family have "gambit" or "trap" in the name. The list shows 24.

Puzzles from this opening

8
7
6
5
4
3
2
a1
b
c
d
e
f
g
h

Puzzle rating 1,119 · played 16,216 times in the source set

Find the move.

Solved in a row: 0. The next puzzle stays near rating 1,400.

Progress stays in this browser. Where the puzzles come from.