Bishop's Opening: Boi Variation
1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 Bc5
The Bishop's Opening: Boi Variation is a chess opening classified as ECO C23, reached after 1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 Bc5. It is a line of the Bishop's Opening. White is to move. 5 named lines continue from this position.
In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 47,134 times by this move order. White won 53%, 3% were drawn and Black won 44%. The most popular continuation is 3. Nf3 (30% of games).
Engine evaluation: +0.13 (Stockfish, depth 56; best line 3. Nf3 Nc6 4. O-O Nf6 5. d3 d6)
- ECO
- C23
- Moves
- 4 plies
- FEN
rnbqk1nr/pppp1ppp/8/2b1p3/2B1P3/8/PPPP1PPP/RNBQK1NR w KQkq - 2 3- PGN
1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 Bc5
Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess
Results by rating
| Average rating | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 0-1499 | 27,959 | |
| 1500-1999 | 18,483 | |
| 2000+ | 692 | |
| All | 47,134 |
Most played moves
| Move | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 3. Nf3 | 14,243 (30%) | |
| 3. d3 | 7,528 (16%) | |
| 3. Qh5 | 7,459 (16%) | |
| 3. Qf3 | 6,309 (13%) | |
| 3. Nc3 | 3,766 (8%) | |
| 3. Bxf7+ | 2,132 (5%) | |
| 3. d4 Lewis Gambit | 1,873 (4%) | |
| 3. c3 Philidor Variation | 1,613 (3%) |
Master games
473 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 53%, draw 15%, Black 32%). The strongest:
- GM Evgeny Alekseev (2550) – GM Benjamin Gledura (2620) 0-1 · CrunchLab Masters Div 3 W · 2024-07-19
- GM Evgeny Alekseev (2575) – GM Nikita Afanasiev (2568) 1/2-1/2 · Russian GP Blitz Final · 2022-12-16
- GM Olexandr Bortnyk (2604) – GM Krzysztof Jakubowski (2475) 1-0 · Titled Tue 5th Apr Early · 2022-04-05
- GM Tomasz Warakomski (2545) – GM Bartlomiej Heberla (2501) 0-1 · TCh-POL Ekstraliga 2024 · 2024-10-15
- GM Rauf Mamedov (2658) – FM Ege Koksal (2339) 1-0 · Nakhchivan Open 2015 · 2015-05-02
Search all games of the Bishop's Opening: Boi Variation and its sub-variations
Highest-rated Lichess games
- Nana_jede_cevape (2854) – GM gmbrewchess (2987) 0-1 · 2026-09-05 · 180 + 0s
- PitZampas (2359) – IM Jomajo (2664) 1-0 · 2026-09-05 · 180 + 0s
- Neftegor (2487) – Byvshev22 (2458) 1-0 · 2026-09-04 · 180 + 0s
Comes from
Bishop's Opening 1. e4 e5 2. Bc4
Continuations
- Bishop's Opening: Lewis Gambit C23 · 1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 Bc5 3. d4
- Bishop's Opening: Lopez Variation C23 · 1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 Bc5 3. Qe2
- Bishop's Opening: McDonnell Gambit C23 · 1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 Bc5 3. b4
- Bishop's Opening: Philidor Variation C23 · 1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 Bc5 3. c3
- Bishop's Opening: Stein Gambit C23 · 1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 Bc5 3. f4
More Bishop's Opening lines (all)
- Bishop's Opening: Anderssen Gambit C23
- Bishop's Opening: Calabrese Countergambit C23
- Bishop's Opening: Calabrese Countergambit, Jaenisch Variation C23
- Bishop's Opening: Four Pawns Gambit C23
- Bishop's Opening: Khan Gambit C23
- Bishop's Opening: Lewis Countergambit (3. c3 d5) C23
- Bishop's Opening: Lewis Countergambit (4. Bxd5 Nf6) C23
- Bishop's Opening: Lewis Countergambit, Walker Variation C23
- Bishop's Opening: Lisitsyn Variation C23
- Bishop's Opening: Lopez Gambit C23
- Bishop's Opening: Lopez Variation, Lopez Gambit C23
- Bishop's Opening: McDonnell Gambit, La Bourdonnais-Denker Gambit C23
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.