Classical Variation

The Classical Variation arises after 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6. Black develops the king's knight and puts a second attacker on e4. This differs from the other main replies to 3. Nc3: it does not pin the c3-knight as 3...Bb4, the Winawer, does, and it keeps the central tension that 3...dxe4, the Rubinstein, releases. The move was regarded as so natural that no player's name became attached to it. ECO assigns it C11, and codes C11 to C14 together cover the Classical complex.

White has to deal with the pressure on e4 at once. The most common answer, chosen in more than half of games, is 4. e5, the Steinitz Variation. It gains a tempo on the knight and closes the center, so after 4...Nfd7 the familiar French chain appears, with Black aiming ...c5 and ...f6 at d4 and e5. The Shirov-Anand Variation, 4. e5 Nfd7 5. Nce2, moves the knight off c3 so that the c-pawn can come forward to support d4.

The main alternative is 4. Bg5, which pins the knight and threatens 5. e5. Black can unpin with 4...Be7, the Normal Variation. It can give up the center with 4...dxe4, the Burn Variation, or counterattack with 4...Bb4, the McCutcheon. After 4...Be7 5. e5 Nfd7 6. Bxe7 Qxe7, White chooses between 7. Qg4, the Pollock Variation, 7. Nb5, the Alapin Variation, and 7. f4. That last move leads to a kingside attack: after 7. f4 O-O 8. Nf3 c5 9. Bd3, the bishop eyes h7, which no longer has a knight on f6 to guard it. Then 9...cxd4 allows a Greek gift sacrifice on h7, so Black does better with 9...f5 or 9...f6. Black can also deviate a move earlier with 5...Ne4, the Tartakower, or 5...Ng8, the Vistaneckis. White, for its part, can avoid the closed structure with 5. Bxf6, the Richter Attack.

Less common fourth moves include 4. exd5, the Delayed Exchange Variation, and 4. Bd3, the Swiss Variation. There is also 4. Be3, the Henneberger Variation, which has scored well for White in the few games where it appears. Across all lines, results on Lichess are close to even, with White marginally ahead, and the engine gives White a slight edge.

The game Tarrasch–Teichmann, San Sebastián 1912, arose from a Classical French. Black's light-squared bishop ended up hemmed in by its own pawns, and White won. The game became a standard illustration of the problem bishop. The classical lines then lost popularity for many years, while 3...Bb4 gained ground after World War I through the work of Nimzowitsch and Botvinnik.