French Defense: McCutcheon Variation, Bogoljubow Variation

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Bb4 5. exd5 Qxd5 6. Bxf6 gxf6 7. Qd2 Qa5

The French Defense: McCutcheon Variation, Bogoljubow Variation is a chess opening classified as ECO C12, reached after 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Bb4 5. exd5 Qxd5 6. Bxf6 gxf6 7. Qd2 Qa5. It is a line of the French Defense. White is to move.

This exact move order didn't appear in our sample of 12.6 million Lichess games: it's a rare line.

Engine evaluation: +0.27 (Stockfish, depth 32; best line 8. Nge2 Bd7 9. a3 Bd6 10. O-O-O Nc6)

ECO: C12
Moves: 14 plies
FEN: rnb1k2r/ppp2p1p/4pp2/q7/1b1P4/2N5/PPPQ1PPP/R3KBNR w KQkq - 2 8
PGN: 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Bb4 5. exd5 Qxd5 6. Bxf6 gxf6 7. Qd2 Qa5

Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess

Master games

19 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 5%, draw 63%, Black 32%). The strongest:

GM Matthieu Cornette (2558) – IM Christophe Sochacki (2479) 0-1 · 1st Montaiguillon Rapid · 2019-09-08
GM Jonny Hector (2493) – IM Mads Andersen (2504) 1-0 · Copenhagen CC 2016 · 2016-04-23
IM Radovan Govedarica (2374) – GM Daniele Vocaturo (2599) 1/2-1/2 · 32nd ECC Open 2016 · 2016-11-09
GM Jonny Hector (2513) – FM Sebastian Mihajlov (2372) 1/2-1/2 · 80th Anniversary OeBRO · 2016-10-22
FM Diego Cuellar (2302) – FM Jose Eduardo Martinez Alcantara (2440) 1/2-1/2 · American Continental 2014 · 2014-10-26

Search all games of the French Defense: McCutcheon Variation, Bogoljubow Variation and its sub-variations

Comes from

French Defense: McCutcheon Variation, Exchange Variation 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Bb4 5. exd5

More French Defense lines (all)

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.