Three Knights Variation, Paris Variation

The Paris Variation, 6. Bd3, is one of White's two main choices in the Burille setup after 4. Nf3 Bg7 5. e3 O-O. The other is 6. Qb3, the Vienna Variation. White puts the king's bishop on its most natural square behind a compact c4–d4–e3 chain, leaves the queen's bishop on c1, and avoids any early commitment in the center. The drawback is that the bishop stands opposite the c4-pawn. If Black captures there, White must spend a further tempo moving the bishop again to recover the pawn.

Black has three main replies. The most popular is 6...c5, which strikes at d4 at once and reinforces the pressure of the g7-bishop on the long diagonal. The second most common is 6...dxc4, which exploits the bishop's placement directly. Less often Black plays 6...c6, holding d5 in Slav fashion; this move scores noticeably worse for Black on Lichess than the other two. The engine regards the position as roughly balanced. Overall Black wins slightly more often than White in this line, and the play tends to be positional rather than forcing.