French Defense: Classical Variation, Rubinstein Variation
1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Be7 5. e5 Nfd7 6. Bxe7 Qxe7 7. Qd2
The French Defense: Classical Variation, Rubinstein Variation is a chess opening classified as ECO C14, reached after 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Be7 5. e5 Nfd7 6. Bxe7 Qxe7 7. Qd2. 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 41 times by this move order. White won 51%, 5% were drawn and Black won 44%. The most popular continuation is 7… a6 (54% of games).
Engine evaluation: +0.23 (Stockfish, depth 39; best line 7… O-O 8. f4 c5 9. dxc5 Nxc5 10. Nf3)
- ECO
- C14
- Moves
- 13 plies
- FEN
rnb1k2r/pppnqppp/4p3/3pP3/3P4/2N5/PPPQ1PPP/R3KBNR b KQkq - 1 7- PGN
1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Be7 5. e5 Nfd7 6. Bxe7 Qxe7 7. Qd2
Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess
Results by rating
| Average rating | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 0-1499 | 1 | |
| 1500-1999 | 16 | |
| 2000+ | 24 | |
| All | 41 |
Most played moves
| Move | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 7… a6 | 22 (54%) | |
| 7… c5 | 14 (34%) | |
| 7… O-O | 5 (12%) |
Master games
69 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 59%, draw 25%, Black 16%). The strongest:
- GM Fabiano Caruana (2835) – GM Matthias Bluebaum (2660) 1-0 · Chess24 Banter Final 2020 · 2020-09-22
- GM Laurent Fressinet (2652) – GM Rainer Buhmann (2568) 0-1 · 20th ch-EUR Indiv 2019 · 2019-03-24
- GM Mateusz Bartel (2648) – GM Stellan Brynell (2414) 1-0 · Titled Tuesday 7th July · 2020-07-07
- IM Shyam, N. (2434) – GM Deepan Chakkravarthy J. (2557) 1/2-1/2 · ch-Commonwealth 2019 · 2019-07-03
- IM Santiago Gonzalez De La Torre (2459) – GM Jose Fernando Cuenca Jimenez (2529) 1-0 · TCh-ESP Div Honor 2016 · 2016-10-02
Highest-rated Lichess games
- Lightlike (2565) – m_e_l_o (2488) 0-1 · 2026-09-05 · 180 + 0s
- AnonymousArtist (2508) – IM Djager97 (2487) 1-0 · 2026-09-06 · 180 + 2s
- mattin7 (2218) – Edyeni-HCN (2293) 1/2-1/2 · 2026-09-03 · 180 + 0s
Comes from
French Defense: Classical Variation (6. Bxe7 Qxe7) 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Be7 5. e5 Nfd7 6. Bxe7 Qxe7
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.