English Opening: Agincourt Defense, Neo-Catalan Declined, Early b3 (5. b3 b6)

1. c4 e6 2. Nf3 d5 3. g3 Nf6 4. Bg2 Be7 5. b3 b6

English Opening: Agincourt Defense, Neo-Catalan Declined, Early b3 after 1. c4 e6 2. Nf3 d5 3. g3 Nf6 4. Bg2 Be7 5. b3 b6 87654321abcdefgh

The English Opening: Agincourt Defense, Neo-Catalan Declined, Early b3 is a chess opening classified as ECO A14, reached after 1. c4 e6 2. Nf3 d5 3. g3 Nf6 4. Bg2 Be7 5. b3 b6. It is a line of the English Opening. White is to move.

This exact move order didn't appear in our sample of 12.6 million Lichess games: it's a rare line.

Engine evaluation: +0.13 (Stockfish, depth 43; best line 6. cxd5 Nxd5 7. Bb2 O-O 8. O-O Bb7)

ECO
A14
Moves
10 plies
FEN
rnbqk2r/p1p1bppp/1p2pn2/3p4/2P5/1P3NP1/P2PPPBP/RNBQK2R w KQkq - 0 6
PGN
1. c4 e6 2. Nf3 d5 3. g3 Nf6 4. Bg2 Be7 5. b3 b6

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

Master games

1 over-the-board game is classified under this line (White 100%, draw 0%, Black 0%). The strongest:

Search all games of the English Opening: Agincourt Defense, Neo-Catalan Declined, Early b3 and its sub-variations

Comes from

English Opening: Agincourt Defense, Neo-Catalan Declined, Early b3 (4… Be7 5. b3) 1. c4 e6 2. Nf3 d5 3. g3 Nf6 4. Bg2 Be7 5. b3

More English Opening 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.