French Defense
Chess opening · ECO C00 · 2 half-moves
1. e4 e6
The French Defense is reached after 1. e4 e6. It is White's move in the position shown.
It branches from the King's Pawn Game with 1… e6.
How often it is played
The French Defense and its variations appeared in 6.4% of games — 193,008 of 3,000,000 rated games sampled from Lichess in September 2026. That makes it number 6 of the openings listed here.
Results
White won 48%, 3.8% were drawn and Black won 48%. These are games between players of every strength and time control, so they say how the opening does in practice rather than how sound it is.
What the engine thinks
Stockfish, at depth 18, evaluates the position at +0.41 — a small edge for White. Positive numbers favour White; see reading the evaluation bar.
Similar openings
The most-played alternatives — what else could have been chosen around the move where this opening begins.
| Opening | Moves | Share of games |
|---|---|---|
| King's Knight Opening | 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 | 15% |
| Sicilian Defense | 1. e4 c5 | 9.6% |
| Scandinavian Defense | 1. e4 d5 | 6.1% |
Main continuations
| Variation | Moves | Share of games |
|---|---|---|
| French Defense: Normal Variation | 1. e4 e6 2. d4 | 3.9% |
| French Defense: Knight Variation | 1. e4 e6 2. Nf3 | 1.0% |
| French Defense: Queen's Knight | 1. e4 e6 2. Nc3 | 0.26% |
| French Defense: La Bourdonnais Variation | 1. e4 e6 2. f4 | 0.25% |
| French Defense: King's Indian Attack | 1. e4 e6 2. d3 | 0.23% |
| French Defense: Steinitz Attack | 1. e4 e6 2. e5 | 0.11% |
| French Defense: Steiner Variation | 1. e4 e6 2. c4 | 0.11% |
| French Defense: Horwitz Attack | 1. e4 e6 2. b3 | 0.04% |
Check your own games
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