French Defense:Tarrasch Variation

Named after Siegbert Tarrasch. 3. Nd2 protects e4 while avoiding the pin that ...Bb4 would bring.

It is reached after 5 moves: 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nd2. It is a line of the French Defense.

Black is to move and has 34 legal moves. Over the next four moves — two for each side — the game can branch into 1,171,415 different games. Those games reach 380,002 different positions: most positions can be reached in more than one way, 3.1 on average.

The Lichess opening list names 23 further lines after this position, such as Open System (3... c5) and Closed Variation (3... Nf6).

The same moves can be played in 6 different legal orders that all reach this position. For example 1. d4 e6 2. e4 d5 3. Nd2, which starts as the Queen's Pawn Game.