French Defense

Free, unlimited analysis for every French Defense game you play on Chess.com or Lichess. Our opening book holds 3,066 catalogued positions for this family under ECO C00–C19.

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Across a batch of games, the Profile Report scores your opening repertoire as one of six skills, benchmarked against players at your rating, so you can tell whether the French Defense is earning its place in your repertoire or quietly costing you points. Insights then shows your record with it by colour across your whole history.

Named variations of the French Defense

Our opening book catalogues 157 named variations in this family. Here are the first 120:

• Advance Variation
• Advance, Extended Bishop Swap Variation
• Advance, Frenkel Gambit
• Advance, Nimzowitsch Gambit
• Advance, Nimzowitsch System
• Advance, Nimzowitsch, Ruisdonk Gambit
• Advance, Paulsen Attack
• Advance, Paulsen, Euwe Variation
• Advance, Paulsen, Main Line
• Advance, Paulsen, Main Line, Lputian Variation
• Advance, Paulsen, Milner-Barry Gambit
• Advance, Steinitz Variation
• Advance, Wade Variation
• Alapin Gambit
• Baeuerle Gambit
• Banzai-Leong Gambit
• Banzai-Leong, Pinova Gambit
• Bird Invitation
• Burn, Main Line
• Chigorin Variation
• Classical Variation
• Classical, Burn Variation
• Classical, Burn, Morozevich Line
• Classical, Delayed Exchange Variation
• Classical, Henneberger Variation
• Classical, MacCutcheon Variation
• Classical, MacCutcheon, Advance Variation
• Classical, MacCutcheon, Advance, Bernstein Variation
• Classical, MacCutcheon, Advance, Chigorin Variation
• Classical, MacCutcheon, Advance, Chigorin, Grigoriev Variation
• Classical, MacCutcheon, Advance, Dr. Olland Variation
• Classical, MacCutcheon, Advance, Janowski Variation
• Classical, MacCutcheon, Advance, Lasker Variation
• Classical, MacCutcheon, Advance, Lasker, Důras Variation
• Classical, MacCutcheon, Advance, Tartakower Variation
• Classical, MacCutcheon, Exchange Variation
• Classical, MacCutcheon, Exchange, Bogoljubov Variation
• Classical, MacCutcheon, Wolf Gambit
• Classical, Richter Attack
• Classical, Steinitz Variation
• Classical, Steinitz, Boleslavsky Variation
• Classical, Steinitz, Bradford Attack
• Classical, Steinitz, Brodsky-Jones Variation
• Classical, Steinitz, Gledhill Attack
• Classical, Swiss Variation
• Diemer-Duhm Gambit
• Exchange Variation
• Exchange, Monte Carlo Variation
• Exchange, Svenonius Variation
• Exchange, Svenonius, Bogoljubov Variation
• Franco-Hiva Gambit
• Franco-Hiva Gambit Accepted
• Franco-Sicilian Defense
• Hoffmann Gambit
• Horwitz Attack
• Horwitz, Papa-Ticulat Gambit
• King's Indian Attack
• King's Indian Attack, Franco-Hiva Gambit
• King's Indian Attack, Reversed Philidor Formation
• Knight Variation
• Knight Variation, Franco-Hiva Gambit
• Knight Variation, Two Knights Variation
• Knight Variation, Wing Gambit
• La Bourdonnais Variation
• La Bourdonnais, Reuter Gambit
• Main Line
• Main Line, Alapin Variation
• Main Line, Alekhine-Chatard Attack
• Main Line, Alekhine-Chatard, Albin-Chatard Gambit
• Main Line, Alekhine-Chatard, Breyer Variation
• Main Line, Alekhine-Chatard, Maróczy Variation
• Main Line, Alekhine-Chatard, Spielmann Variation
• Main Line, Alekhine-Chatard, Teichmann Variation
• Main Line, Pollock Variation
• Main Line, Rubinstein Variation
• Main Line, Steinitz Variation
• Main Line, Steinitz, Ståhlberg Variation
• Main Line, Tarrasch Variation
• Main Line, Tartakower Variation
• Main Line, Vistaneckis Variation
• Main Line, Vistaneckis, Frankfurt Variation
• Marshall Variation
• Mediterranean Defense
• Morphy Gambit
• Normal Variation
• Perseus Gambit
• Perseus, Carlson Gambit
• Queen's Knight Variation
• Queen's Knight, Pelikán Variation
• Rubinstein Variation
• Rubinstein, Blackburne Defense
• Rubinstein, Blackburne, Capablanca Line
• Rubinstein, Blackburne, Kasparov Attack
• Rubinstein, Ellis Gambit
• Rubinstein, Fort Knox Variation
• Rubinstein, Giertz-Peters Gambit
• Rubinstein, Marić Variation
• Rubinstein, Rasa-Studier Gambit
• Réti-Spielmann Attack
• Schlechter Variation
• St. George Defense
• St. George, Three Pawn Attack
• St. George, Three Pawn, Sanky-George Gambit
• St. George, Traditional Line
• Steiner Variation
• Steiner, Orthoschnapp Gambit
• Steinitz Attack
• Svenonius Variation
• Tarrasch Variation
• Tarrasch, Closed
• Tarrasch, Closed, Botvinnik Variation
• Tarrasch, Closed, Main Line
• Tarrasch, Closed, Main Line, Leningrad Variation
• Tarrasch, Closed, Pawn Center Variation
• Tarrasch, Guimard Defense
• Tarrasch, Guimard, Main Line
• Tarrasch, Guimard, Thunderbunny Variation
• Tarrasch, Haberditz Variation
• Tarrasch, Modern System
• Tarrasch, Morozevich Variation

More chess openings

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