French Defense: Classical Variation, Richter Attack (6… Be7 7. Qg4)
1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Be7 5. Bxf6 Bxf6 6. e5 Be7 7. Qg4
The French Defense: Classical Variation, Richter Attack is a chess opening classified as ECO C13, reached after 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Be7 5. Bxf6 Bxf6 6. e5 Be7 7. Qg4. It is a line of the French Defense. Black is to move.
In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 43 times by this move order. White won 42%, 5% were drawn and Black won 53%. The most popular continuation is 7… O-O (65% of games).
Engine evaluation: −0.60 (Stockfish, depth 36; best line 7… O-O 8. Nf3 c5 9. dxc5 Nd7 10. Bd3)
- ECO
- C13
- Moves
- 13 plies
- FEN
rnbqk2r/ppp1bppp/4p3/3pP3/3P2Q1/2N5/PPP2PPP/R3KBNR b KQkq - 2 7- PGN
1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Be7 5. Bxf6 Bxf6 6. e5 Be7 7. Qg4
Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess
Results by rating
| Average rating | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 1500-1999 | 31 | |
| 2000+ | 12 | |
| All | 43 |
Most played moves
| Move | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 7… O-O | 28 (65%) | |
| 7… g6 | 11 (26%) | |
| 7… c5 | 2 (5%) | |
| 7… Kf8 | 2 (5%) |
Master games
20 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 30%, draw 25%, Black 45%). The strongest:
- Winfried Basener (2148) – GM Dragan Kosic (2480) 0-1 · 33rd Munich OIS Open 2013 · 2013-09-29
- Raul Sanchez Quintero (2035) – GM Evgeny Gleizerov (2536) 0-1 · I Centro Goya Open 2014 · 2014-12-06
- Christopher Pace (2053) – IM Artiom Samsonkin (2428) 0-1 · Titled Tue 14th Jun Early · 2022-06-14
- Christopher Pace (2053) – GM Alexander Fishbein (2411) 1/2-1/2 · Titled Tue 12th Jul Late · 2022-07-12
- Nikita Zakharov (1892) – FM Petr Palachev (2340) 0-1 · Polugaevsky Mem 2014 · 2014-07-02
Search all games of the French Defense: Classical Variation, Richter Attack and its sub-variations
Highest-rated Lichess games
- Rafavila (2173) – Aleksix731 (2217) 0-1 · 2026-09-04 · 180 + 2s
- Rafavila (2194) – Arsen_Riboka (2154) 1-0 · 2026-09-01 · 180 + 2s
- bernard2032 (2130) – DenisKomarov (2195) 1-0 · 2026-09-07 · 180 + 0s
Comes from
French Defense: Classical Variation, Richter Attack (4… Be7 5. Bxf6) 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Be7 5. Bxf6
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.