English Opening: King's English, Erbenheimer Gambit
1. c4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. Nf3 e4 4. Ng5 Ng4
The English Opening: King's English, Erbenheimer Gambit is a chess opening classified as ECO A22, reached after 1. c4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. Nf3 e4 4. Ng5 Ng4. 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 7 times by this move order. White won 71%, 0% were drawn and Black won 29%. The most popular continuation is 5. Ngxe4 (100% of games).
Engine evaluation: +1.55 (Stockfish, depth 28; best line 5. Ngxe4 c6 6. d4 d5 7. cxd5 cxd5)
- ECO
- A22
- Moves
- 8 plies
- FEN
rnbqkb1r/pppp1ppp/8/6N1/2P1p1n1/2N5/PP1PPPPP/R1BQKB1R w KQkq - 2 5- PGN
1. c4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. Nf3 e4 4. Ng5 Ng4
Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess
Results by rating
| Average rating | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 0-1499 | 5 | |
| 1500-1999 | 2 | |
| All | 7 |
Most played moves
| Move | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 5. Ngxe4 | 7 (100%) |
Highest-rated Lichess games
- AMON2025 (1721) – LionKing2019 (1678) 0-1 · 2026-09-05 · 600 + 0s
- pedro_16 (1647) – ayahbunga (1644) 1-0 · 2026-09-07 · 600 + 0s
- sarmadkaradaghi (1501) – Shark3012 (1491) 1-0 · 2026-09-07 · 300 + 0s
Comes from
English Opening: King's English Variation, Two Knights Variation 1. c4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6
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.