English Opening: Anglo-Indian Defense, Scandinavian Defense, Exchange Variation

1. c4 Nf6 2. Nf3 d5 3. cxd5 Nxd5

The English Opening: Anglo-Indian Defense, Scandinavian Defense, Exchange Variation is a chess opening classified as ECO A15, reached after 1. c4 Nf6 2. Nf3 d5 3. cxd5 Nxd5. 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 118 times by this move order. White won 57%, 8% were drawn and Black won 35%. The most popular continuation is 4. Nc3 (36% of games).

Engine evaluation: +0.82 (Stockfish, depth 50; best line 4. d4 Bf5 5. Nbd2 Nb6 6. e4 Bg4)

ECO: A15
Moves: 6 plies
FEN: rnbqkb1r/ppp1pppp/8/3n4/8/5N2/PP1PPPPP/RNBQKB1R w KQkq - 0 4
PGN: 1. c4 Nf6 2. Nf3 d5 3. cxd5 Nxd5

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

Results by rating

Average rating	Games	White / draw / Black
0-1499	20	65%35%
1500-1999	66	62%32%
2000+	32	41%18%41%
All	118	57%35%

Most played moves

Move	Games	White / draw / Black
4. Nc3	42 (36%)	48%12%40%
4. g3	27 (23%)	67%30%
4. d4	20 (17%)	65%15%20%
4. e4	17 (14%)	59%35%
4. e3	3 (3%)	33%67%
4. b3	3 (3%)	100%
4. d3	3 (3%)	67%33%
4. Ne5	2 (2%)	100%

Master games

36 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 75%, draw 17%, Black 8%). The strongest:

GM Ori Kobo (2551) – FM Sebastian Poltorak (2362) 1/2-1/2 · Titled Tue 24th Oct Late · 2023-10-24
IM Rout Padmini (2380) – IM Carles Diaz Camallonga (2463) 1-0 · Titled Tuesday 19th Oct · 2021-10-19
FM Roman Kezin (2471) – FM Vsevolod Ovchinnikov (2329) 1-0 · 15th Moscow Open A 2019 · 2019-02-01
GM Aleksandr Shimanov (2576) – FM Nikita Shandrygin (2209) 1-0 · Titled Tue 25th Jun Early · 2024-06-25
GM Tong(QD) Xiao (2520) – FM Nikita Shandrygin (2209) 1-0 · Titled Tue 29th Jul Late · 2025-07-29

Search all games of the English Opening: Anglo-Indian Defense, Scandinavian Defense, Exchange Variation and its sub-variations

Highest-rated Lichess games

NM FedirBohatyrchuk1892 (2513) – Smoky1 (2391) 1-0 · 2026-09-04 · 180 + 0s
Gambitgourmand (2385) – Martink_2001 (2408) 1-0 · 2026-09-02 · 180 + 0s
Davinchiiiii (2342) – Moonspell19 (2340) 1-0 · 2026-09-04 · 180 + 2s

Comes from

English Opening: Anglo-Indian Defense, Scandinavian Defense 1. c4 Nf6 2. Nf3 d5

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.