King's Indian Attack: French Variation

1. Nf3 d5 2. g3 c5 3. Bg2 Nc6

The King's Indian Attack: French Variation is a chess opening classified as ECO A08, reached after 1. Nf3 d5 2. g3 c5 3. Bg2 Nc6. It is a line of the King's Indian Attack. White is to move. 1 named line continues from this position.

In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 3,287 times by this move order. White won 53%, 5% were drawn and Black won 42%. The most popular continuation is 4. O-O (47% of games).

Engine evaluation: +0.15 (Stockfish, depth 65; best line 4. d4 e6 5. O-O Nf6 6. c4 dxc4)

ECO: A08
Moves: 6 plies
FEN: r1bqkbnr/pp2pppp/2n5/2pp4/8/5NP1/PPPPPPBP/RNBQK2R w KQkq - 2 4
PGN: 1. Nf3 d5 2. g3 c5 3. Bg2 Nc6

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

Results by rating

Average rating	Games	White / draw / Black
0-1499	281	47%51%
1500-1999	1,674	52%43%
2000+	1,332	55%39%
All	3,287	53%42%

Most played moves

Move	Games	White / draw / Black
4. O-O	1,552 (47%)	51%44%
4. d4 Reversed Grünfeld (3… Nc6 4. d4)	1,016 (31%)	56%38%
4. d3	525 (16%)	54%44%
4. c4	80 (2%)	51%41%
4. c3	51 (2%)	39%57%
4. b3	31 (1%)	58%42%
4. e3	19 (1%)	53%42%
4. Nc3	5 (0%)	40%60%

Master games

1,072 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 51%, draw 17%, Black 32%). The strongest:

GM Vladimir Kramnik (2803) – GM Viswanathan Anand (2786) 1/2-1/2 · 8th Tal Mem Blitz · 2013-06-12
GM Richard Rapport (2763) – GM Fabiano Caruana (2806) 1/2-1/2 · Saint Louis Blitz 2021 · 2021-08-14
GM Magnus Carlsen (2832) – GM Bogdan-Daniel Deac (2680) 1-0 · Titled Tue 24th Sep Late · 2024-09-24
GM Richard Rapport (2752) – GM So, W. (2753) 0-1 · Armageddon Grand Finale L · 2023-09-20
GM Hikaru Nakamura (2810) – GM Bogdan-Daniel Deac (2652) 1-0 · 2nd 3-0 Thu 1st Jan 2026 · 2026-01-01

Search all games of the King's Indian Attack: French Variation and its sub-variations

Highest-rated Lichess games

reallylovezerk (2709) – ScaryIndianJunior (2821) 0-1 · 2026-09-01 · 180 + 0s
machee (2699) – ScaryIndianJunior (2810) 0-1 · 2026-09-01 · 180 + 0s
FM umagon20 (2762) – BoneCrusher2020 (2743) 1-0 · 2026-09-06 · 180 + 0s

Comes from

King's Indian Attack: Sicilian Variation (2… c5 3. Bg2) 1. Nf3 d5 2. g3 c5 3. Bg2

Continuations

Zukertort Opening: Reversed Grünfeld (3… Nc6 4. d4) A08 · 1. Nf3 d5 2. g3 c5 3. Bg2 Nc6 4. d4

More King's Indian Attack 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.