Upon the chlorination of vinyl compounds in alcohols, the reaction products were composed of 2-alkoxy-1-chloro compound (A), 1-alkoxy-2-chloro compound (B) and vicinaldichloride (C). Various vinyl compounds were chlorinated in alcohols at 40 °C in order to elucidate the effect of their molecular structure on the product distribution. The A/(A+B) was inversely proportional to the relative rate of ordinary