French Defense: Winawer Variation, Positional Variation (6… Ne7 7. Nf3)
1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e5 c5 5. a3 Bxc3+ 6. bxc3 Ne7 7. Nf3
The French Defense: Winawer Variation, Positional Variation is a chess opening classified as ECO C19, reached after 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e5 c5 5. a3 Bxc3+ 6. bxc3 Ne7 7. Nf3. It is a line of the French Defense. Black is to move. 1 named line continues from this position.
In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 152 times by this move order. White won 43%, 6% were drawn and Black won 51%. The most popular continuation is 7… Nbc6 (28% of games).
Engine evaluation: +0.24 (Stockfish, depth 48; best line 7… b6 8. Bb5+ Bd7 9. Bd3 c4 10. Be2)
- ECO
- C19
- Moves
- 13 plies
- FEN
rnbqk2r/pp2nppp/4p3/2ppP3/3P4/P1P2N2/2P2PPP/R1BQKB1R b KQkq - 2 7- PGN
1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e5 c5 5. a3 Bxc3+ 6. bxc3 Ne7 7. Nf3
Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess
Results by rating
| Average rating | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 0-1499 | 1 | |
| 1500-1999 | 38 | |
| 2000+ | 113 | |
| All | 152 |
Most played moves
| Move | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 7… Nbc6 | 42 (28%) | |
| 7… b6 | 33 (22%) | |
| 7… Qa5 | 28 (18%) | |
| 7… Qc7 Winawer Variation, Positional Variation (7. Nf3 Qc7) | 23 (15%) | |
| 7… Bd7 | 8 (5%) | |
| 7… O-O | 7 (5%) | |
| 7… h6 | 4 (3%) | |
| 7… c4 | 4 (3%) |
Master games
570 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 40%, draw 25%, Black 35%). The strongest:
- LCZero0.31-dag-5350a2e-BT4-6147500 (3634) – Stockfishdev-20240513-e608eab8 (3662) 1-0 · TCEC 26 Superfinal 2024 · 2024-05-21
- Stockfishdev-20240513-e608eab8 (3662) – LCZero0.31-dag-5350a2e-BT4-6147500 (3634) 1-0 · TCEC 26 Superfinal 2024 · 2024-05-21
- GM Fabiano Caruana (2773) – GM Magnus Carlsen (2843) 1-0 · 5th Final Masters · 2012-09-24
- GM Fabiano Caruana (2835) – GM Alexander Donchenko (2657) 0-1 · Titled Tue 11th Aug · 2020-08-11
- GM So, W. (2753) – GM Jeffery Xiong (2656) 1-0 · Chess.com Open PlayIn4 · 2026-03-25
Highest-rated Lichess games
- joobree (2614) – RembrandtvanRijin (2712) 0-1 · 2026-09-07 · 180 + 0s
- legko2019 (2655) – candido1 (2656) 1-0 · 2026-09-03 · 180 + 2s
- joobree (2559) – IM dimkor (2572) 0-1 · 2026-09-06 · 180 + 0s
Comes from
French Defense: Winawer Variation, Advance Variation (6. bxc3 Ne7) 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e5 c5 5. a3 Bxc3+ 6. bxc3 Ne7
Continuations
- French Defense: Winawer Variation, Positional Variation (7. Nf3 Qc7) C19 · 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e5 c5 5. a3 Bxc3+ 6. bxc3 Ne7 7. Nf3 Qc7
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.