Creepy Crawly Formation: Classical Defense

1. h3 d5 2. a3 e5

The Creepy Crawly Formation: Classical Defense is a chess opening classified as ECO A00, reached after 1. h3 d5 2. a3 e5. It is a line of the Creepy Crawly Formation. White is to move.

In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 252 times by this move order. White won 46%, 6% were drawn and Black won 48%. The most popular continuation is 3. e3 (29% of games).

Engine evaluation: −0.39 (Stockfish, depth 36; best line 3. e3 Bd6 4. d4 e4 5. c4 c6)

ECO: A00
Moves: 4 plies
FEN: rnbqkbnr/ppp2ppp/8/3pp3/8/P6P/1PPPPPP1/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 0 3
PGN: 1. h3 d5 2. a3 e5

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

Results by rating

Average rating	Games	White / draw / Black
0-1499	140	47%48%
1500-1999	103	45%49%
2000+	9	56%44%
All	252	46%48%

Most played moves

Move	Games	White / draw / Black
3. e3	74 (29%)	50%47%
3. d3	70 (28%)	47%47%
3. Nf3	22 (9%)	45%55%
3. d4	21 (8%)	33%15%52%
3. b4	14 (6%)	71%29%
3. g4	12 (5%)	42%58%
3. Nc3	11 (4%)	36%28%36%
3. g3	11 (4%)	45%45%

Master games

29 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 79%, draw 4%, Black 17%). The strongest:

GM Anton Demchenko (2654) – FM Marco Riehle (2341) 1-0 · Titled Tue 15th Mar Early · 2022-03-15
IM Licael Roderick Ticona Rocabado (2418) – GM Costica-Ciprian Nanu (2524) 1-0 · Titled Tue 19th Sep Late · 2023-09-19
GM Xu, Yi. (2494) – FM Nils Richter (2409) 1-0 · Titled Tue 25th Jul Early · 2023-07-25
GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda (2733) – FM Mikhail Pesotskiy (2155) 1-0 · Titled Tue 13th Aug Late · 2024-08-13
FM Ethan Guo (2375) – IM Frode Elsness (2405) 1-0 · Titled Tue 11th Aug 2026 · 2026-08-11

Search all games of the Creepy Crawly Formation: Classical Defense and its sub-variations

Highest-rated Lichess games

BishopAndSons (2671) – Commonitorium (2625) 1-0 · 2026-09-02 · 180 + 0s
Road2xxxx (2512) – IM imdejong (2444) 1-0 · 2026-09-04 · 180 + 0s
keedupeet (2158) – eugenijus3 (2139) 1-0 · 2026-09-05 · 300 + 0s

Comes from

Clemenz Opening 1. h3

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.