English Opening: King's English Variation, Four Knights Variation, Bradley Beach Variation
1. c4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. Nf3 Nc6 4. d4 e4
The English Opening: King's English Variation, Four Knights Variation, Bradley Beach Variation is a chess opening classified as ECO A28, reached after 1. c4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. Nf3 Nc6 4. d4 e4. 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 91 times by this move order. White won 49%, 0% were drawn and Black won 51%. The most popular continuation is 5. Ng5 (70% of games).
Engine evaluation: 0.00 (Stockfish, depth 50; best line 5. Nd2 Bb4 6. e3 Bxc3 7. bxc3 d6)
- ECO
- A28
- Moves
- 8 plies
- FEN
r1bqkb1r/pppp1ppp/2n2n2/8/2PPp3/2N2N2/PP2PPPP/R1BQKB1R w KQkq - 0 5- PGN
1. c4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. Nf3 Nc6 4. d4 e4
Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess
Results by rating
| Average rating | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 0-1499 | 15 | |
| 1500-1999 | 65 | |
| 2000+ | 11 | |
| All | 91 |
Most played moves
| Move | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 5. Ng5 | 64 (70%) | |
| 5. Nd2 | 12 (13%) | |
| 5. Ne5 | 12 (13%) | |
| 5. d5 | 2 (2%) | |
| 5. Nh4 | 1 (1%) |
Master games
22 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 41%, draw 14%, Black 45%). The strongest:
- GM Aleksa Strikovic (2529) – IM Angel Arribas Lopez (2488) 1/2-1/2 · 23rd Elgoibar Masters 2013 · 2013-12-19
- GM Vakhidov, T. (2435) – GM AlR Abdulla (2522) 1/2-1/2 · CJKS-Prime GM 2015 · 2015-02-05
- GM Titas Stremavicius (2554) – CM Joshua Altman (2248) 1-0 · CCCSA Labor Day GM-B 2026 · 2026-09-05
- GM Gergely Antal (2546) – Stefan Liepold (2191) 1-0 · 25th Donau Open 2016 · 2016-12-27
- Vladimir Chernikov (2301) – IM Rufino Camarena Jimenez (2329) 1-0 · 8th Tabiya Alcoy Masters · 2019-07-13
Highest-rated Lichess games
- begemotsa (2259) – TURKEYGM31313131 (2286) 0-1 · 2026-09-05 · 180 + 2s
- bingshan (2227) – fkrslh (2178) 1-0 · 2026-09-01 · 180 + 0s
- gldanets (2174) – ShowinTheWayItsDone (2229) 0-1 · 2026-09-05 · 180 + 0s
Comes from
English Opening: King's English Variation, Four Knights Variation (3. Nf3 Nc6) 1. c4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. Nf3 Nc6
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.