Bishop's Opening: Horwitz Gambit
1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 Nf6 3. Nc3 b5
The Bishop's Opening: Horwitz Gambit is a chess opening classified as ECO C26, reached after 1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 Nf6 3. Nc3 b5. 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 10 times by this move order. White won 60%, 0% were drawn and Black won 40%. The most popular continuation is 4. Bxb5 (60% of games).
Engine evaluation: +1.11 (Stockfish, depth 32; best line 4. Bxb5 c6 5. Ba4 Qa5 6. Bb3 d5)
- ECO
- C26
- Moves
- 6 plies
- FEN
rnbqkb1r/p1pp1ppp/5n2/1p2p3/2B1P3/2N5/PPPP1PPP/R1BQK1NR w KQkq - 0 4- PGN
1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 Nf6 3. Nc3 b5
Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess
Results by rating
| Average rating | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 0-1499 | 6 | |
| 1500-1999 | 3 | |
| 2000+ | 1 | |
| All | 10 |
Most played moves
| Move | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 4. Bxb5 | 6 (60%) | |
| 4. Bb3 | 4 (40%) |
Highest-rated Lichess games
- Hasan2iiii (2013) – Sergey_Vyshlov (1991) 1-0 · 2026-09-07 · 300 + 0s
- surhakan (1996) – skvortsovfk (1971) 0-1 · 2026-09-05 · 600 + 0s
- Okore (1891) – Zanna_Demchenko (1274) 1-0 · 2026-09-03 · 300 + 0s
Comes from
Bishop's Opening: Berlin Defense 1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 Nf6
More Bishop's Opening lines (all)
- Bishop's Opening C23
- Bishop's Opening: Anderssen Gambit C23
- Bishop's Opening: Boi Variation 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: Lewis Gambit C23
- Bishop's Opening: Lisitsyn Variation 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.