Barnes Opening: Walkerling
1. f3 e5 2. e4 Nf6 3. Bc4
The Barnes Opening: Walkerling is a chess opening classified as ECO C20, reached after 1. f3 e5 2. e4 Nf6 3. Bc4. It is a line of the Barnes Opening. Black is to move.
In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 69 times by this move order. White won 49%, 5% were drawn and Black won 46%. The most popular continuation is 3… Bc5 (32% of games).
Engine evaluation: −1.14 (Stockfish, depth 55; best line 3… d5 4. exd5 Nxd5 5. d3 Bc5 6. Qe2)
- ECO
- C20
- Moves
- 5 plies
- FEN
rnbqkb1r/pppp1ppp/5n2/4p3/2B1P3/5P2/PPPP2PP/RNBQK1NR b KQkq - 2 3- PGN
1. f3 e5 2. e4 Nf6 3. Bc4
Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess
Results by rating
| Average rating | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 0-1499 | 36 | |
| 1500-1999 | 29 | |
| 2000+ | 4 | |
| All | 69 |
Most played moves
| Move | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 3… Bc5 | 22 (32%) | |
| 3… d5 | 14 (20%) | |
| 3… Nc6 | 11 (16%) | |
| 3… c6 | 9 (13%) | |
| 3… Nxe4 | 6 (9%) | |
| 3… d6 | 2 (3%) | |
| 3… Bb4 | 1 (1%) | |
| 3… g6 | 1 (1%) |
Highest-rated Lichess games
- Revyakin_Andrey (2107) – wjg26 (2157) 1-0 · 2026-09-04 · 180 + 0s
- unbillon (2096) – k4rp4s0v (2080) 1-0 · 2026-09-01 · 180 + 0s
- justplaybi (2119) – PetrJuza (2014) 1-0 · 2026-09-05 · 180 + 0s
Comes from
Barnes Opening 1. f3
More Barnes Opening lines (all)
Opening names and moves from the Lichess openings dataset; statistics from the Lichess open database, 2026-09 (CC0), sample of 12.6 million games, bots excluded; evaluations from Lichess cloud analysis (all CC0). Master games from The Week in Chess #920–#1664 by Mark Crowther, used with permission.