French Defense: Winawer Variation, Portisch-Hook Variation
1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e5 c5 5. a3 Bxc3+ 6. bxc3 Qa5
The French Defense: Winawer Variation, Portisch-Hook Variation is a chess opening classified as ECO C18, reached after 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e5 c5 5. a3 Bxc3+ 6. bxc3 Qa5. 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 248 times by this move order. White won 47%, 6% were drawn and Black won 47%. The most popular continuation is 7. Bd2 (88% of games).
Engine evaluation: +0.64 (Stockfish, depth 50; best line 7. Bd2 Qa4 8. h4 Nc6 9. h5 h6)
- ECO
- C18
- Moves
- 12 plies
- FEN
rnb1k1nr/pp3ppp/4p3/q1ppP3/3P4/P1P5/2P2PPP/R1BQKBNR w KQkq - 1 7- PGN
1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e5 c5 5. a3 Bxc3+ 6. bxc3 Qa5
Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess
Results by rating
| Average rating | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 0-1499 | 2 | |
| 1500-1999 | 45 | |
| 2000+ | 201 | |
| All | 248 |
Most played moves
| Move | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 7. Bd2 | 218 (88%) | |
| 7. Qd2 | 13 (5%) | |
| 7. Nf3 | 9 (4%) | |
| 7. dxc5 | 2 (1%) | |
| 7. Qd3 | 2 (1%) | |
| 7. Qg4 | 2 (1%) | |
| 7. Qf3 | 1 (0%) | |
| 7. h4 | 1 (0%) |
Master games
2,111 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 44%, draw 22%, Black 34%). The strongest:
- Stockfish dev-20260228-702d4b8c (3796) – LCZero 0.33-dev-f6ec55c-BT4-6147500-it332 (3749) 1/2-1/2 · TCEC 29 Premier 2026 · 2026-03-12
- LCZero 0.33-dev-f6ec55c-BT4-6147500-it332 (3749) – Stockfish dev-20260228-702d4b8c (3796) 1/2-1/2 · TCEC 29 Premier 2026 · 2026-03-09
- SlowChess Blitz 2.83 avx2 (3490) – KomodoDragon 2885.00 (3590) 1/2-1/2 · TCEC 22 Premier 2022 · 2022-03-26
- KomodoDragon 2885.00 (3590) – SlowChess Blitz 2.83 avx2 (3490) 1-0 · TCEC 22 Premier 2022 · 2022-03-23
- GM Peter Svidler (2753) – GM Yangyi Yu (2759) 0-1 · Luohu GM Blitz 2018 · 2018-06-14
Highest-rated Lichess games
- July16Q (2676) – BoneCrusher2020 (2735) 1-0 · 2026-09-04 · 180 + 0s
- evg85 (2798) – FM bomber1234 (2610) 1-0 · 2026-09-06 · 180 + 0s
- Kingkennytv (2662) – IM nocnypako (2681) 0-1 · 2026-09-06 · 180 + 0s
Comes from
French Defense: Winawer Variation, Advance Variation (5… Bxc3+ 6. bxc3) 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e5 c5 5. a3 Bxc3+ 6. bxc3
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.