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

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/4p3/2ppP3/3P2Q1/P1P5/2P2PPP/R1B1KBNR b
Moves: 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e5 c5 5. a3 Bxc3 6. bxc3 Ne7 7. Qg4

French Defence, Winawer Variation

By playing 7. Qg4, White immediately attacks Black's unprotected g7 pawn. Now it's Black's choice whether they want to defend the pawn, e.g. by playing 7... O-O, or whether they're going to sacrifice the g7-Pawn and prepare some counterplay on the queenside instead. For this purpose Black can try 7... Qc7 (The Poisoned Pawn Variation).

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

	7
Main line	... O-O	=
Poisoned Pawn Variation	... Qc7	=

References

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