Chess Opening Theory/1. e4/1...e6/2. d4/2...d5/3. Nc3/3...Bb4/4. e5/4...c5/5. a3/5...Bxc3/6. bxc3/6...Ne7/7. Qg4/7...O-O/8. Nf3/8...Nbc6/9. Bd3/9...f5

French Defence, Winawer Variation
a b c d e f g h 8 8 7 7 6 6 5 5 4 4 3 3 2 2 1 1 a b c d e f g h
Position in Forsyth-Edwards Notation (FEN) r1bq1rk1/pp2n1pp/2n1p3/2ppPp2/3P2Q1/P1PB1N2/2P2PPP/R1B1K2R w
Moves: 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e5 c5 5. a3 Bxc3 6. bxc3 Ne7 7. Qg4 O-O 8. Nf3 Nbc6 9. Bd3 f5

French Defence, Winawer Variation

Black's last move 9... f5 stopped White's threat of sacrificing the bishop on h7.
If White doesn't capture Black's f5 pawn en passant now, then their king bishop's diagonal (b1-h7) will be blocked permanently.
Because having their king bishop on a blocked diagonal certainly won't help White's kingside attack at all, White usually decides to capture the f5 pawn en passant 10. exf6.
However, in a few games White also played 10. Qh3 - in hope for opening a file on the kingside for their rooks at a later time.

Theory table

For explanation of theory tables, see theory table and for notation, see algebraic notation.

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e5 c5 5. a3 Bxc3+ 6. bxc3 Ne7 7. Qg4 O-O 8. Nf3 Nbc6 9. Bd3 f5

	10
Main Continuation	exf6 Rxf6	=
Rare Continuation	Qh3 ...	=

References

• Kasparov, Garry, & Keene, Raymond 1989 Batsford chess openings 2. ISBN 0-8050-3409-9.