English Opening: Anglo-Indian Defense, Queen's Indian Formation (2. Nf3 b6)
1. c4 Nf6 2. Nf3 b6
The English Opening: Anglo-Indian Defense, Queen's Indian Formation is a chess opening classified as ECO A15, reached after 1. c4 Nf6 2. Nf3 b6. 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 71 times by this move order. White won 41%, 14% were drawn and Black won 45%. The most popular continuation is 3. g3 (56% of games).
Engine evaluation: +0.28 (Stockfish, depth 61; best line 3. g3 e6 4. Bg2 Bb7 5. O-O Be7)
- ECO
- A15
- Moves
- 4 plies
- FEN
rnbqkb1r/p1pppppp/1p3n2/8/2P5/5N2/PP1PPPPP/RNBQKB1R w KQkq - 0 3- PGN
1. c4 Nf6 2. Nf3 b6
Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess
Results by rating
| Average rating | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 0-1499 | 3 | |
| 1500-1999 | 21 | |
| 2000+ | 47 | |
| All | 71 |
Most played moves
| Move | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 3. g3 | 40 (56%) | |
| 3. Nc3 | 17 (24%) | |
| 3. d4 | 11 (15%) | |
| 3. d3 | 1 (1%) | |
| 3. e3 | 1 (1%) | |
| 3. h3 | 1 (1%) |
Master games
355 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 32%, draw 32%, Black 36%). The strongest:
- LCZero 0.31-dag-c93c6a8-BT4-61 (3652) – Stockfish dev-20250118-8e3e22b (3683) 1/2-1/2 · TCEC 27 Theory Bonus · 2025-01-25
- Stockfish dev-20250118-8e3e22b (3683) – LCZero 0.31-dag-c93c6a8-BT4-61 (3652) 1/2-1/2 · TCEC 27 Theory Bonus · 2025-01-25
- GM Magnus Carlsen (2853) – GM Richard Rapport (2745) 1/2-1/2 · Superbet Rapid 2023 · 2023-05-23
- GM Fabiano Caruana (2789) – GM Praggnanandhaa R (2771) 0-1 · chess.com SpeedChess 2025 · 2025-10-30
- GM Praggnanandhaa R (2785) – GM Levon Aronian (2744) 0-1 · GCT Finals 2025 · 2025-10-03
Highest-rated Lichess games
- quantumcorrection (2605) – ftower (2567) 1-0 · 2026-09-05 · 180 + 0s
- NM FedirBohatyrchuk1892 (2512) – ynzj1515 (2517) 1/2-1/2 · 2026-09-04 · 180 + 0s
- avrchess64 (2445) – Sergeant_Mark (2442) 1/2-1/2 · 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.