English Opening: Anglo-Indian Defense, Old Indian Formation
1. c4 Nf6 2. Nf3 d6
The English Opening: Anglo-Indian Defense, Old Indian Formation is a chess opening classified as ECO A15, reached after 1. c4 Nf6 2. Nf3 d6. 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 291 times by this move order. White won 49%, 8% were drawn and Black won 43%. The most popular continuation is 3. g3 (34% of games).
Engine evaluation: +0.50 (Stockfish, depth 44; best line 3. d4 g6 4. Nc3 Bg7 5. e4 O-O)
- ECO
- A15
- Moves
- 4 plies
- FEN
rnbqkb1r/ppp1pppp/3p1n2/8/2P5/5N2/PP1PPPPP/RNBQKB1R w KQkq - 0 3- PGN
1. c4 Nf6 2. Nf3 d6
Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess
Results by rating
| Average rating | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 0-1499 | 40 | |
| 1500-1999 | 122 | |
| 2000+ | 129 | |
| All | 291 |
Most played moves
| Move | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 3. g3 | 98 (34%) | |
| 3. Nc3 | 87 (30%) | |
| 3. d4 | 69 (24%) | |
| 3. e3 | 19 (7%) | |
| 3. d3 | 5 (2%) | |
| 3. b3 | 5 (2%) | |
| 3. e4 | 3 (1%) | |
| 3. h3 | 2 (1%) |
Master games
214 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 57%, draw 18%, Black 25%). The strongest:
- GM Radoslaw Wojtaszek (2705) – GM Fabiano Caruana (2823) 0-1 · 83rd Tata Steel Masters · 2021-01-26
- GM Praggnanandhaa R (2761) – GM Aleksandr Rakhmanov (2585) 1/2-1/2 · World Rapid 2025 · 2025-12-26
- GM Antonios Pavlidis (2532) – GM Aleksandr Rakhmanov (2667) 1-0 · European Blitz 2016 · 2016-12-18
- GM Guha Mitrabha (2508) – GM Anton Demchenko (2612) 1-0 · 3rd 3-0 Thu 29th Jan 2026 · 2026-01-29
- FM Evgeny Sapunov (2461) – GM Anton Demchenko (2654) 0-1 · Titled Tue 5th Apr Late · 2022-04-05
Highest-rated Lichess games
- Kapsalon (2526) – makchudra (2627) 0-1 · 2026-09-03 · 180 + 2s
- fifteen_yo_captain (2520) – Iluzionisti (2578) 0-1 · 2026-09-03 · 180 + 0s
- NM FedirBohatyrchuk1892 (2522) – LoveBits (2454) 0-1 · 2026-09-04 · 180 + 0s
Comes from
English Opening: Anglo-Indian Defense, King's Knight Variation 1. c4 Nf6 2. Nf3
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.