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French Defense (1.e4 e6)
How do French Defense games actually end? Across 202,192 Lichess games that reached the position after 1.e4 e6, White won 47.8%, 4.6% were drawn and Black won 47.5%. Below: the main line move by move, the most played continuations (the favorite is 2.d4), the rating effect and the opening's history.
The main line, move by move
| Move | Position name | Games | White | Draws | Black |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.e4 | King's Pawn Game | 1,601,410 | 49.2% | 4.3% | 46.4% |
| 1...e6 | French Defense | 202,192 | 47.8% | 4.6% | 47.5% |
| 2.d4 | French Defense: Normal Variation | 106,700 | 50.0% | 4.7% | 45.3% |
| 2...d5 | French Defense | 76,743 | 47.3% | 5.0% | 47.6% |
| 3.e5 | - | 24,808 | 42.7% | 4.2% | 53.0% |
The 5 most common continuations (for White)
| Move | Variation | Games | White | Draws | Black |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2.d4 | French Defense: Normal Variation | 106,700 | 50.0% | 4.7% | 45.3% |
| 2.Nf3 | - | 44,948 | 45.5% | 4.7% | 49.7% |
| 2.f4 | - | 12,749 | 47.6% | 3.8% | 48.6% |
| 2.Nc3 | - | 8,042 | 46.7% | 4.6% | 48.7% |
| 2.Bc4 | - | 6,940 | 41.9% | 4.2% | 54.0% |
How rating changes the same position
| Rating band (average of the pair) | Games | White | Draws | Black |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1600-1799 | 116,005 | 47.7% | 4.2% | 48.1% |
| 2200-2499 | 2,968 | 50.4% | 6.6% | 43.1% |
The story of the opening
The French earned its name in 1834, when the Paris chess club beat London in a correspondence match using 1...e6, and the defense became attached to the French forever. The idea is to concede space on move one in order to strike the center with d5 on move two, deliberately accepting the opening's chronic patient: the light squared bishop, locked behind its own pawn chain and nicknamed the French bishop.
Few defenses inspire such loyalty. The German grandmaster Wolfgang Uhlmann played the French his entire life, against anyone, and wrote books defending the thesis that the bad bishop is a fair price for a bulletproof structure. In the Lichess statistics it stands as the third most common reply to 1.e4, with balanced rates: solid enough to hold, sharp enough to strike back when White overextends.
Compare it with every other opening in the opening statistics archive, or visit its neighbors: Caro-Kann Defense and Italian Game. Nerd aside: chess notation is a 64 square code, cousin to the ones living next door, like binary and Morse.
Source: the Lichess open game database (database.lichess.org, CC0 data), months 2014-06, 2015-01, 2016-01, snapshot of 2026-07-09: blitz, rapid and classical games with the players' average rating between 1600 and 2199, aggregated by move sequence. Variation names and ECO codes: lichess-org/chess-openings (CC0).
Last updated: · Methodology and sources