French Defense: Winawer Variation, Positional Variation (7. Nf3 Nge7)

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e5 c5 5. a3 Bxc3+ 6. bxc3 Nc6 7. Nf3 Nge7

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 Nc6 7. Nf3 Nge7. 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 44 times by this move order. White won 66%, 0% were drawn and Black won 34%. The most popular continuation is 8. Bd3 (36% of games).

Engine evaluation: +0.50 (Stockfish, depth 42; best line 8. h4 Qa5 9. Bd2 h6 10. Be2 Bd7)

ECO: C19
Moves: 14 plies
FEN: r1bqk2r/pp2nppp/2n1p3/2ppP3/3P4/P1P2N2/2P2PPP/R1BQKB1R w KQkq - 3 8
PGN: 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e5 c5 5. a3 Bxc3+ 6. bxc3 Nc6 7. Nf3 Nge7

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

Results by rating

Average rating	Games	White / draw / Black
1500-1999	23	48%52%
2000+	21	86%14%
All	44	66%34%

Most played moves

Move	Games	White / draw / Black
8. Bd3	16 (36%)	81%19%
8. a4	11 (25%)	64%36%
8. Be2	7 (16%)	71%29%
8. Bb5	5 (11%)	40%60%
8. dxc5	2 (5%)	50%50%
8. Rb1	1 (2%)	100%
8. Bd2	1 (2%)	100%
8. Bg5	1 (2%)	100%

Master games

43 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 40%, draw 27%, Black 33%). The strongest:

GM Ian Nepomniachtchi (2767) – GM Vasyl Ivanchuk (2747) 1-0 · World Rapid 2016 · 2016-12-28
GM Teimour Radjabov (2717) – GM Nikita Vitiugov (2742) 1/2-1/2 · 30th ECC Open 2014 · 2014-09-20
GM Dimitrios Mastrovasilis (2627) – GM Alexander Donchenko (2636) 1/2-1/2 · World Blitz 2021 · 2021-12-29
IM Martin Zumsande (2490) – GM Konstantin Tarlev (2557) 0-1 · Bundesliga 2018-19 · 2019-04-06
GM Arjun Kalyan (2477) – GM Deep Sengupta (2526) 1/2-1/2 · 1st Maharashtra GM Open · 2022-06-05

Search all games of the French Defense: Winawer Variation, Positional Variation and its sub-variations

Highest-rated Lichess games

Skat-E (2456) – lcpazv (2361) 1-0 · 2026-09-04 · 180 + 2s
B_Georgiev (2345) – FM Dolgorukij (2418) 1-0 · 2026-09-03 · 180 + 2s
Zhendosik1 (2315) – Trebor23 (2421) 0-1 · 2026-09-03 · 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)

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.