French Defense:Rubinstein Variation

Named after Akiba Rubinstein. Black gives up the centre with 3...dxe4 for a solid, compact position.

It is reached after 6 moves: 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 dxe4. It is a line of the French Defense.

White is to move and has 39 legal moves. Over the next four moves — two for each side — the game can branch into 1,850,047 different games. Those games reach 582,063 different positions: most positions can be reached in more than one way, 3.2 on average.

The Lichess opening list names 6 further lines after this position, such as Blackburne Defense (4. Nxe4 Nd7) and Ellis Gambit (4. Nxe4 e5).

The same moves can be played in 16 different legal orders that all reach this position. For example 1. d4 e6 2. e4 d5 3. Nc3 dxe4, which starts as the Queen's Pawn Game.