English Opening: Agincourt Defense, Neo-Catalan Declined (4… Be7 5. O-O)
1. c4 e6 2. Nf3 d5 3. g3 Nf6 4. Bg2 Be7 5. O-O
The English Opening: Agincourt Defense, Neo-Catalan Declined is a chess opening classified as ECO A14, reached after 1. c4 e6 2. Nf3 d5 3. g3 Nf6 4. Bg2 Be7 5. O-O. It is a line of the English Opening. Black is to move. 2 named lines continue from this position.
In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 126 times by this move order. White won 42%, 7% were drawn and Black won 51%. The most popular continuation is 5… O-O (90% of games).
Engine evaluation: +0.10 (Stockfish, depth 52; best line 5… O-O 6. d4 dxc4 7. Qc2 a6 8. a4)
- ECO
- A14
- Moves
- 9 plies
- FEN
rnbqk2r/ppp1bppp/4pn2/3p4/2P5/5NP1/PP1PPPBP/RNBQ1RK1 b kq - 4 5- PGN
1. c4 e6 2. Nf3 d5 3. g3 Nf6 4. Bg2 Be7 5. O-O
Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess
Results by rating
| Average rating | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 1500-1999 | 8 | |
| 2000+ | 118 | |
| All | 126 |
Most played moves
| Move | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 5… O-O | 114 (90%) | |
| 5… c6 | 5 (4%) | |
| 5… dxc4 | 3 (2%) | |
| 5… Nbd7 | 2 (2%) | |
| 5… d4 | 1 (1%) | |
| 5… c5 | 1 (1%) |
Master games
471 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 47%, draw 29%, Black 24%). The strongest:
- GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda (2733) – GM Erigaisi Arjun (2778) 1-0 · chess.com SpeedChess 2024 · 2024-07-25
- GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (2718) – GM Javokhir Sindarov (2778) 0-1 · TechM GCL 2026 · 2026-09-12
- GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (2717) – GM Anish Giri (2767) 1/2-1/2 · GCT Super ROM Classic · 2026-05-14
- GM Fabiano Caruana (2803) – GM Alexey Sarana (2672) 0-1 · Titled Tue 4th Feb Late · 2025-02-04
- GM Sam Shankland (2731) – GM Richard Rapport (2735) 1-0 · Champions Showdown Blitz · 2019-02-24
Highest-rated Lichess games
- gelyaromanova (2725) – Mysterious_Spy (2785) 0-1 · 2026-09-03 · 180 + 0s
- CSIM2026 (2663) – ji0sqwqgt (2674) 1-0 · 2026-09-05 · 180 + 0s
- NM FedirBohatyrchuk1892 (2514) – IM mmsanchezchess (2707) 0-1 · 2026-09-03 · 180 + 0s
Comes from
English Opening: Neo-Catalan Declined 1. c4 e6 2. Nf3 d5 3. g3 Nf6 4. Bg2 Be7
Continuations
- English Opening: Agincourt Defense, Neo-Catalan Declined (5… O-O 6. b3) A14 · 1. c4 e6 2. Nf3 d5 3. g3 Nf6 4. Bg2 Be7 5. O-O O-O 6. b3
- English Opening: Agincourt Defense, Keres Defense A14 · 1. c4 e6 2. Nf3 d5 3. g3 Nf6 4. Bg2 Be7 5. O-O c5 6. cxd5 Nxd5 7. Nc3 Nc6
More English Opening lines (all)
- English Opening A10
- English Opening: Achilles-Omega Gambit A10
- English Opening: Adorjan Defense A10
- English Opening: Anglo-Dutch Defense A10
- English Opening: Anglo-Dutch Defense, Hickmann Gambit A10
- English Opening: Anglo-Dutch Variation, Chabanon Gambit A10
- English Opening: Anglo-Dutch Variation, Ferenc Gambit A10
- English Opening: Anglo-Lithuanian Variation A10
- English Opening: Anglo-Scandinavian Defense A10
- English Opening: Anglo-Scandinavian Defense, Löhn Gambit A10
- English Opening: Anglo-Scandinavian Defense, Malvinas Variation A10
- English Opening: Anglo-Scandinavian Defense, Schulz Gambit A10
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.