Bishop's Opening: McDonnell Gambit, La Bourdonnais-Denker Gambit
1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 Bc5 3. b4 Bxb4 4. c3
The Bishop's Opening: McDonnell Gambit, La Bourdonnais-Denker Gambit is a chess opening classified as ECO C23, reached after 1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 Bc5 3. b4 Bxb4 4. c3. It is a line of the Bishop's Opening. Black is to move.
In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 30 times by this move order. White won 53%, 0% were drawn and Black won 47%. The most popular continuation is 4… Bc5 (63% of games).
Engine evaluation: −0.22 (Stockfish, depth 46; best line 4… Ba5 5. d4 Nc6 6. Nf3 d6 7. Qb3)
- ECO
- C23
- Moves
- 7 plies
- FEN
rnbqk1nr/pppp1ppp/8/4p3/1bB1P3/2P5/P2P1PPP/RNBQK1NR b KQkq - 0 4- PGN
1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 Bc5 3. b4 Bxb4 4. c3
Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess
Results by rating
| Average rating | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 0-1499 | 14 | |
| 1500-1999 | 15 | |
| 2000+ | 1 | |
| All | 30 |
Most played moves
| Move | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 4… Bc5 | 19 (63%) | |
| 4… Ba5 | 5 (17%) | |
| 4… Be7 | 5 (17%) | |
| 4… Bd6 | 1 (3%) |
Highest-rated Lichess games
- LorKin102 (2110) – carlaki (2194) 0-1 · 2026-09-02 · 180 + 2s
- euyki (1913) – odysseusnerves (1937) 0-1 · 2026-09-07 · 300 + 3s
- mosaad12341234 (1943) – Mirkomil_15 (1898) 0-1 · 2026-09-07 · 600 + 0s
Comes from
Bishop's Opening: McDonnell Gambit 1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 Bc5 3. b4
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.