Opening guide
French Defense (C00) — win rates at club level
1.e4 e6, playing as black — data from 65,842,533 Lichess blitz & rapid games at 1600-1800.
The position
♜♞♝♚♛♝♞♜♟♟♟♟♟♟♟♟♟♟♟♟♟♟♟♟♜♞♝♚♛♝♞♜
How it scores at your rating
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| Rating band | Games | White / draw / Black | Score for black |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1600-1800 | 65,842,533 | 47.8% / 4.2% / 48.0% | 50.1% |
| 1400-1600 | 53,419,075 | 47.9% / 3.8% / 48.3% | 50.2% |
| 1800-2000 | 60,653,528 | 47.8% / 4.8% / 47.3% | 49.7% |
| 2000+ | 44,106,865 | 48.3% / 6.1% / 45.6% | 48.6% |
What white actually plays next
Top replies at 1600-1800:
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| Move | Games | Played | Win / draw / loss |
|---|---|---|---|
| d4 (French Defense: Normal Variation) | 29,669,401 | 45.1% | 48.7% / 4.2% / 47.1% |
| Nf3 (French Defense: Knight Variation) | 19,456,032 | 29.5% | 47.1% / 4.4% / 48.5% |
| f4 (French Defense: La Bourdonnais Variation) | 3,680,240 | 5.6% | 48.7% / 3.4% / 47.8% |
| Nc3 (French Defense: Queen's Knight) | 3,332,809 | 5.1% | 47.5% / 4.3% / 48.3% |
| Bc4 | 3,230,410 | 4.9% | 44.7% / 4.2% / 51.1% |
| d3 (French Defense: King's Indian Attack) | 1,658,645 | 2.5% | 47.5% / 4.4% / 48.1% |
Common mistakes at 1600-1800
- e5 is played in 2.3% of games here but scores only 45.9% for white. After e5, d5 is the most common answer and scores 55.8% for black.
- Bc4 is played in 4.9% of games here but scores only 46.8% for white.
Model games
Real games from the Lichess masters database.
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| White | Black | Result | Year | Game |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carlsen, M. (2875) | Grischuk, A. (2775) | 1-0 | 2019 | View game |
| So, W. (2815) | Carlsen, M. (2832) | ½-½ | 2017 | View game |
| Caruana, F. (2817) | So, W. (2822) | 0-1 | 2017 | View game |
| Carlsen, M. (2882) | Rapport, R. (2747) | 1-0 | 2019 | View game |
| Aronian, L.. (2781) | Carlsen, M.. (2847) | 1-0 | 2021 | View game |
Recent club games in this line
Recent rated games at 1600-1800 — not model games, just what actually happens at that rating.
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| White | Black | Result | Year | Game |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EuroNeuro (1683) | Sal2061 (1712) | ½-½ | 2026 | View game |
| mmartel (1765) | warrenkfc (1750) | 0-1 | 2026 | View game |
| Ges921 (1577) | DmitryZholob (1642) | 1-0 | 2026 | View game |
| EloHeckle (1768) | yahiaoui-abdellah (1701) | ½-½ | 2026 | View game |
Build a repertoire from here
See the full move tree for players in your rating band: 1600-1800 repertoire explorer (black) →