French Defense
1.e4 e6
Black prepares ...d5 to challenge the center at once, accepting a slightly cramped position and a light-squared bishop that can be hard to activate, in return for a very solid pawn chain.
As White: 63% score in 8337 games (4896 wins, 653 draws, 2788 losses).
As Black: 56% score in 8461 games (4372 wins, 766 draws, 3323 losses).
Who plays it most
- GM Rafael Vahanyan: 162 games as Black, scores 51%
- GM Vladimir Raicevic: 158 games as Black, scores 47%
- ELO 2320: 149 games as Black, scores 49%
- GM Reefat Bin Sattar: 138 games as Black, scores 47%
- GM Matthias Bluebaum: 131 games as Black, scores 66%
- GM Alexander Rustemov: 125 games as Black, scores 57%
- IM Eric Rosen: 123 games as Black, scores 57%
- GM Sergey Volkov: 123 games as Black, scores 51%
- GM Zaur Mammadov: 113 games as Black, scores 55%
- IM Joseph Levine: 112 games as Black, scores 57%
- GM Tsegmed Batchuluun: 109 games as Black, scores 55%
- GM Andrey Sumets: 104 games as Black, scores 47%
- IM Renato Terry: 104 games as Black, scores 67%
- GM Sasa Martinovic: 98 games as Black, scores 52%
- Vadim Plotkin: 97 games as Black, scores 56%
From the recent public Chess.com games of 1061 players on the top players list, updated about once a week. Score = wins plus half the draws.