Bishop's Opening: Boden-Kieseritzky Gambit, Lichtenhein Defense

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Bc4 Nxe4 4. Nc3 d5

Bishop's Opening: Boden-Kieseritzky Gambit, Lichtenhein Defense after 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Bc4 Nxe4 4. Nc3 d5 87654321abcdefgh

The Bishop's Opening: Boden-Kieseritzky Gambit, Lichtenhein Defense is a chess opening classified as ECO C27, reached after 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Bc4 Nxe4 4. Nc3 d5. It is a line of the Bishop's Opening. White is to move.

In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 37 times by this move order. White won 76%, 0% were drawn and Black won 24%. The most popular continuation is 5. Bxd5 (51% of games).

Engine evaluation: +0.16 (Stockfish, depth 36; best line 5. Bxd5 Nf6 6. Bb3 Bd6 7. d4 exd4)

ECO
C27
Moves
8 plies
FEN
rnbqkb1r/ppp2ppp/8/3pp3/2B1n3/2N2N2/PPPP1PPP/R1BQK2R w KQkq - 0 5
PGN
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Bc4 Nxe4 4. Nc3 d5

Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess

Results by rating

Average ratingGamesWhite / draw / Black
0-14991164%36%
1500-19992479%21%
2000+2100%
All3776%24%

Most played moves

MoveGamesWhite / draw / Black
5. Bxd519 (51%)74%26%
5. Nxd511 (30%)64%36%
5. Nxe45 (14%)100%
5. Bb32 (5%)100%

Highest-rated Lichess games

Comes from

Bishop's Opening: Boden-Kieseritzky Gambit 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Bc4 Nxe4 4. Nc3

More Bishop's 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.