French Defense: Advance Variation, Wade Variation
1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 c5 4. c3 Qb6 5. Nf3 Bd7
The French Defense: Advance Variation, Wade Variation is a chess opening classified as ECO C02, reached after 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 c5 4. c3 Qb6 5. Nf3 Bd7. It is a line of the French Defense. White is to move.
In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 896 times by this move order. White won 43%, 6% were drawn and Black won 51%. The most popular continuation is 6. Bd3 (34% of games).
Engine evaluation: +0.32 (Stockfish, depth 45; best line 6. Be2 Bb5 7. Bxb5+ Qxb5 8. Na3 Qd7)
- ECO
- C02
- Moves
- 10 plies
- FEN
rn2kbnr/pp1b1ppp/1q2p3/2ppP3/3P4/2P2N2/PP3PPP/RNBQKB1R w KQkq - 3 6- PGN
1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 c5 4. c3 Qb6 5. Nf3 Bd7
Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess
Results by rating
| Average rating | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 0-1499 | 72 | |
| 1500-1999 | 408 | |
| 2000+ | 416 | |
| All | 896 |
Most played moves
| Move | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 6. Bd3 | 301 (34%) | |
| 6. Be2 | 214 (24%) | |
| 6. a3 | 176 (20%) | |
| 6. b3 | 45 (5%) | |
| 6. a4 | 37 (4%) | |
| 6. Na3 | 31 (3%) | |
| 6. Nbd2 | 28 (3%) | |
| 6. Qb3 | 17 (2%) |
Master games
1,758 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 41%, draw 20%, Black 39%). The strongest:
- GM Magnus Carlsen (2856) – GM Parham Maghsoodloo (2701) 1-0 · World Blitz 2021 · 2021-12-30
- GM Santosh Gujrathi Vidit (2727) – GM Richard Rapport (2763) 0-1 · FIDE Grand Prix 2 Pool C · 2022-03-06
- GM Nils Grandelius (2663) – GM Pentala Harikrishna (2732) 0-1 · 83rd Tata Steel Masters · 2021-01-18
- GM Magnus Carlsen (2853) – IM Renato Terry (2520) 1-0 · Titled Tue 13th Jun Early · 2023-06-13
- GM Liren Ding (2808) – GM Yinglun Xu (2549) 1-0 · TCh-CHN DivA Rapid · 2022-09-08
Search all games of the French Defense: Advance Variation, Wade Variation and its sub-variations
Highest-rated Lichess games
- Sic_Transit_GM (2640) – FM Attila76 (2638) 0-1 · 2026-09-05 · 180 + 0s
- Kesha05 (2584) – BishopAndSons (2687) 1-0 · 2026-09-02 · 180 + 0s
- FM The_Fawkes (2644) – white-arkangel (2621) 1-0 · 2026-09-06 · 180 + 0s
Comes from
French Defense: Advance Variation (3… c5 4. c3) 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 c5 4. c3
More French Defense lines (all)
- French Defense (1. e4 e6) C00
- French Defense (2. d4 d5) C00
- French Defense: Alapin Gambit C00
- French Defense: Baeuerle Gambit C00
- French Defense: Banzai-Leong Gambit C00
- French Defense: Banzai-Leong Gambit, Pinova Gambit C00
- French Defense: Bird Invitation C00
- French Defense: Carlson Gambit C00
- French Defense: Chigorin Variation C00
- French Defense: Diemer-Duhm Gambit C00
- French Defense: Diemer-Duhm Gambit Accepted C00
- French Defense: Franco-Hiva Gambit C00
Opening names and moves from the Lichess openings dataset; statistics from the Lichess open database, 2026-09 (CC0), sample of 12.6 million games, bots excluded; evaluations from Lichess cloud analysis (all CC0). Master games from The Week in Chess #920–#1664 by Mark Crowther, used with permission.