Elephant Gambit: Maróczy Gambit

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d5 3. exd5 Bd6

The Elephant Gambit: Maróczy Gambit is a chess opening classified as ECO C40, reached after 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d5 3. exd5 Bd6. It is a line of the Elephant Gambit. White is to move.

In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 747 times by this move order. White won 47%, 4% were drawn and Black won 49%. The most popular continuation is 4. Nc3 (35% of games).

Engine evaluation: +0.96 (Stockfish, depth 50; best line 4. d4 e4 5. Nfd2 f5 6. Nc4 Be7)

ECO: C40
Moves: 6 plies
FEN: rnbqk1nr/ppp2ppp/3b4/3Pp3/8/5N2/PPPP1PPP/RNBQKB1R w KQkq - 1 4
PGN: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d5 3. exd5 Bd6

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

Results by rating

Average rating	Games	White / draw / Black
0-1499	200	55%44%
1500-1999	431	46%50%
2000+	116	38%53%
All	747	47%49%

Most played moves

Move	Games	White / draw / Black
4. Nc3	260 (35%)	47%48%
4. d3	134 (18%)	48%48%
4. Bc4	104 (14%)	40%56%
4. d4	100 (13%)	50%45%
4. c4	73 (10%)	45%49%
4. Bb5+	39 (5%)	46%54%
4. Qe2	20 (3%)	50%50%
4. Be2	6 (1%)	83%17%

Master games

106 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 60%, draw 7%, Black 33%). The strongest:

GM Kirill Shevchenko (2599) – IM Arnar Gunnarsson (2420) 0-1 · Euro Online Blitz Quali · 2020-12-18
GM Dennis Wagner (2581) – IM Andrew N Greet (2417) 1-0 · Titled Tuesday 9th Mar · 2021-03-09
GM Rodrigo Vasquez Schroeder (2443) – GM Sune Berg Hansen (2533) 1/2-1/2 · Titled Tuesday 12th Jan · 2021-01-12
GM Hannes Stefansson (2536) – IM Arnar Gunnarsson (2420) 1-0 · ch-ISL Blitz 2020 · 2020-12-12
GM Hannes Stefansson (2518) – IM Arnar Gunnarsson (2412) 1-0 · Reykjavik Blitz Open 2022 · 2022-01-29

Search all games of the Elephant Gambit: Maróczy Gambit and its sub-variations

Highest-rated Lichess games

Iurii-66 (2463) – DrLaPompa (2431) 0-1 · 2026-09-03 · 180 + 2s
Wade1 (2478) – Chess_Gambit_is_fun (2374) 0-1 · 2026-09-06 · 300 + 3s
GioGogola (2346) – Chess_Gambit_is_fun (2373) 0-1 · 2026-09-06 · 300 + 3s

Comes from

Elephant Gambit 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d5

More Elephant Gambit 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.