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

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) rnbqk2r/pp2nppp/4p3/2ppP3/3P4/P1P5/2P2PPP/R1BQKBNR w
Moves: 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e5 c5 5. a3 Bxc3 6. bxc3 Ne7

French Defence, Winawer Variation

With 6... Ne7 Black continues development. Although Black's c5 Pawn is not defended, White rarely chooses this continuation dxc5, because then White's tripled pawns on the c-file are very weak and Black has an easy time regaining the pawn. White's usual continuations from this position are the aggressive Qg4, which threatens to capture Black's undefended g7 Pawn. Alternatively White can also play the solid Nf3 in order to prepare kingside castling, or they can play a4 with the aim of developing their dark-square bishop to a3.

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
Main line	Qg4 O-O	=
Variation Nf3	Nf3 ...	=
Variation a4	a4 ...	=
Variation dxc5	dxc5 ...	=

References

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