English Opening: Anglo-Indian Defense, Grünfeld Formation
1. c4 Nf6 2. Nf3 g6 3. g3 d5
The English Opening: Anglo-Indian Defense, Grünfeld Formation is a chess opening classified as ECO A15, reached after 1. c4 Nf6 2. Nf3 g6 3. g3 d5. It is a line of the English Opening. White is to move.
In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 4 times by this move order. White won 100%, 0% were drawn and Black won 0%. The most popular continuation is 4. cxd5 (50% of games).
Engine evaluation: +0.29 (Stockfish, depth 35; best line 4. cxd5 Nxd5 5. Bg2 Bg7 6. d4 Nb6)
- ECO
- A15
- Moves
- 6 plies
- FEN
rnbqkb1r/ppp1pp1p/5np1/3p4/2P5/5NP1/PP1PPP1P/RNBQKB1R w KQkq - 0 4- PGN
1. c4 Nf6 2. Nf3 g6 3. g3 d5
Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess
Results by rating
| Average rating | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 1500-1999 | 3 | |
| 2000+ | 1 | |
| All | 4 |
Most played moves
| Move | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 4. cxd5 | 2 (50%) | |
| 4. Bg2 | 1 (25%) | |
| 4. b3 | 1 (25%) |
Master games
12 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 50%, draw 42%, Black 8%). The strongest:
- GM Gukesh D (2533) – GM Eltaj Safarli (2624) 1/2-1/2 · TCh-FRA Top 12 2019 · 2019-05-26
- GM Gareev, T. (2573) – IM Tangi Migot (2353) 1-0 · Titled Tuesday 4th Jan · 2022-01-04
- IM Boris Itkis (2343) – IM Mihai-Lucian Grunberg (2401) 0-1 · Titled Tuesday 18th Jan · 2022-01-18
- Leonid Starozhilov (2293) – FM Vsevolod Ovchinnikov (2426) 1-0 · Titled Tuesday 31st Aug · 2021-08-31
- WIM Borka Franciskovic (2277) – FM Julijan Plenca (2351) 1/2-1/2 · Opatija Open A 2013 · 2013-07-07
Highest-rated Lichess games
- lion-khozestan (2066) – brookswilliams (2039) 1-0 · 2026-09-04 · 600 + 5s
- Unexpected_Excavator (1918) – Amati (1883) 1-0 · 2026-09-06 · 180 + 0s
- joaquin1948 (1888) – ricardocorralc (1881) 1-0 · 2026-09-02 · 300 + 3s
Comes from
English Opening: Anglo-Indian Defense, King's Indian Formation 1. c4 Nf6 2. Nf3 g6
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.