French Defense: Exchange Variation, Svenonius Variation
1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. exd5 exd5 5. Bg5
The French Defense: Exchange Variation, Svenonius Variation is a chess opening classified as ECO C01, reached after 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. exd5 exd5 5. Bg5. 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 191 times by this move order. White won 46%, 4% were drawn and Black won 50%. The most popular continuation is 5… Be7 (46% of games).
Engine evaluation: −0.12 (Stockfish, depth 50; best line 5… Be7 6. Nf3 O-O 7. Bd3 Re8 8. O-O)
- ECO
- C01
- Moves
- 9 plies
- FEN
rnbqkb1r/ppp2ppp/5n2/3p2B1/3P4/2N5/PPP2PPP/R2QKBNR b KQkq - 1 5- PGN
1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. exd5 exd5 5. Bg5
Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess
Results by rating
| Average rating | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 0-1499 | 20 | |
| 1500-1999 | 95 | |
| 2000+ | 76 | |
| All | 191 |
Most played moves
| Move | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 5… Be7 | 88 (46%) | |
| 5… c6 | 54 (28%) | |
| 5… Bb4 | 24 (13%) | |
| 5… Be6 | 8 (4%) | |
| 5… Nbd7 | 8 (4%) | |
| 5… c5 | 3 (2%) | |
| 5… Bd6 | 2 (1%) | |
| 5… h6 | 2 (1%) |
Master games
221 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 43%, draw 26%, Black 31%). The strongest:
- GM Yangyi Yu (2763) – GM Nikita Vitiugov (2732) 1/2-1/2 · FIDE World Cup 2019 · 2019-09-25
- GM Pentala Harikrishna (2753) – GM Hao Wang (2717) 0-1 · IMSA Rapid 2016 · 2016-02-26
- GM Nigel D Short (2678) – GM Pentala Harikrishna (2737) 1/2-1/2 · PokerStars IoM Masters · 2015-10-11
- GM Bogdan-Daniel Deac (2692) – GM Alexei Shirov (2648) 1-0 · Titled Tue 4th Feb Late · 2025-02-04
- GM Jose Eduardo Martinez Alcantara (2612) – GM Sanan Sjugirov (2691) 1-0 · Titled Tue 21st May Late · 2024-05-21
Highest-rated Lichess games
- VoinTeka (2560) – Humfrey_Hardyng (2650) 0-1 · 2026-09-03 · 180 + 2s
- Lipsrow4 (2531) – L0cust (2502) 1-0 · 2026-09-01 · 180 + 2s
- Demon_of_Draws (2499) – L0cust (2511) 1-0 · 2026-09-02 · 180 + 2s
Comes from
French Defense: Classical Variation, Delayed Exchange Variation 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. exd5
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.