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

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) rnbq1rk1/pp2nppp/4p3/2ppP3/3P2Q1/P1P2N2/2P2PPP/R1B1KB1R b
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

French Defence, Winawer Variation

With 8.Nf3 White develops an additional piece which can support White's efforts of attacking the Black King. However, there is still no immediate threat for Black, so there's no reason for Black to play desperate measures like weakening their pawn structure on the kingside or something like that. Hence they usually decide to develop more pieces by playing 8....Nbc6.

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

	8
Variation Nbc6	... Nbc6	=

References

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