French Defense: Knight Variation, Franco-Hiva Gambit
1. e4 e6 2. Nf3 f5
The French Defense: Knight Variation, Franco-Hiva Gambit is a chess opening classified as ECO C00, reached after 1. e4 e6 2. Nf3 f5. 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 707 times by this move order. White won 52%, 5% were drawn and Black won 43%. The most popular continuation is 3. exf5 (57% of games).
Engine evaluation: +1.46 (Stockfish, depth 34; best line 3. exf5 exf5 4. d4 Nf6 5. Bd3 Qe7+)
- ECO
- C00
- Moves
- 4 plies
- FEN
rnbqkbnr/pppp2pp/4p3/5p2/4P3/5N2/PPPP1PPP/RNBQKB1R w KQkq - 0 3- PGN
1. e4 e6 2. Nf3 f5
Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess
Results by rating
| Average rating | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 0-1499 | 490 | |
| 1500-1999 | 198 | |
| 2000+ | 19 | |
| All | 707 |
Most played moves
| Move | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 3. exf5 | 404 (57%) | |
| 3. e5 | 123 (17%) | |
| 3. Nc3 | 74 (10%) | |
| 3. d3 | 41 (6%) | |
| 3. d4 | 20 (3%) | |
| 3. Bc4 | 16 (2%) | |
| 3. Ne5 | 10 (1%) | |
| 3. Bd3 | 8 (1%) |
Master games
3 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 100%, draw 0%, Black 0%). The strongest:
- GM Yaroslav Zherebukh (2611) – IM Max Cornejo (2364) 1-0 · Texas Collegiate 2013 · 2013-11-09
- Pablo Cerinza (1933) – Juan Bernardo Merlo (1710) 1-0 · XX Rio Grande Domingo Int · 2020-07-05
Search all games of the French Defense: Knight Variation, Franco-Hiva Gambit and its sub-variations
Highest-rated Lichess games
- HandsomeHunk (2170) – AriefSWL (2205) 1-0 · 2026-09-05 · 180 + 0s
- TiscaChopra (2181) – AriefSWL (2178) 0-1 · 2026-09-05 · 180 + 0s
- dbarkovskiy (2165) – AriefSWL (2146) 1-0 · 2026-09-03 · 180 + 0s
Comes from
French Defense: Knight Variation 1. e4 e6 2. Nf3
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.