English Opening: Great Snake Variation

1. c4 g6

English Opening: Great Snake Variation after 1. c4 g6 87654321abcdefgh

The English Opening: Great Snake Variation is a chess opening classified as ECO A10, reached after 1. c4 g6. It is a line of the English Opening. White is to move. 2 named lines continue from this position.

In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 19,212 times by this move order. White won 50%, 5% were drawn and Black won 45%. The most popular continuation is 2. Nc3 (53% of games).

Engine evaluation: +0.20 (Stockfish, depth 47; best line 2. d4 Nf6 3. Nc3 d5 4. Nf3 Bg7)

ECO
A10
Moves
2 plies
FEN
rnbqkbnr/pppppp1p/6p1/8/2P5/8/PP1PPPPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 0 2
PGN
1. c4 g6

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

Results by rating

Average ratingGamesWhite / draw / Black
0-14993,92149%47%
1500-199911,15851%45%
2000+4,13348%46%
All19,21250%45%

Most played moves

MoveGamesWhite / draw / Black
2. Nc310,234 (53%)50%45%
2. d42,889 (15%)48%47%
2. g32,757 (14%)51%43%
2. e31,222 (6%)49%47%
2. Nf3758 (4%)46%48%
2. e4451 (2%)48%49%
2. d3365 (2%)48%48%
2. b3194 (1%)48%43%

Master games

12,901 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 38%, draw 23%, Black 39%). The strongest:

Search all games of the English Opening: Great Snake Variation and its sub-variations

Highest-rated Lichess games

Comes from

English Opening 1. c4

Continuations

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.