French Defense:Winawer Variation

Named after Szymon Winawer. 3...Bb4 pins the knight and leads to sharp, unbalanced positions.

It is reached after 6 moves: 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4. It is a line of the French Defense.

White is to move and has 33 legal moves. Over the next four moves — two for each side — the game can branch into 1,410,461 different games. Those games reach 461,916 different positions: most positions can be reached in more than one way, 3.1 on average.

The Lichess opening list names 54 further lines after this position, such as Advance Variation (4. e5) and Alekhine-Maróczy Gambit (4. Ne2).

The same moves can be played in 18 different legal orders that all reach this position. For example 1. d4 e6 2. e4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4, which starts as the Queen's Pawn Game.