English Opening: King's English Variation, Four Knights Variation, Fianchetto Line (4. g3 Bb4)
1. c4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. Nf3 Nc6 4. g3 Bb4
The English Opening: King's English Variation, Four Knights Variation, Fianchetto Line is a chess opening classified as ECO A29, reached after 1. c4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. Nf3 Nc6 4. g3 Bb4. It is a line of the English Opening. White is to move. 1 named line continues from this position.
In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 229 times by this move order. White won 47%, 4% were drawn and Black won 49%. The most popular continuation is 5. Bg2 (49% of games).
Engine evaluation: +0.03 (Stockfish, depth 60; best line 5. Nd5 e4 6. Nh4 d6 7. Bg2 O-O)
- ECO
- A29
- Moves
- 8 plies
- FEN
r1bqk2r/pppp1ppp/2n2n2/4p3/1bP5/2N2NP1/PP1PPP1P/R1BQKB1R w KQkq - 1 5- PGN
1. c4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. Nf3 Nc6 4. g3 Bb4
Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess
Results by rating
| Average rating | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 0-1499 | 22 | |
| 1500-1999 | 102 | |
| 2000+ | 105 | |
| All | 229 |
Most played moves
| Move | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 5. Bg2 | 113 (49%) | |
| 5. Nd5 | 83 (36%) | |
| 5. Qc2 | 14 (6%) | |
| 5. a3 | 8 (3%) | |
| 5. Qb3 | 6 (3%) | |
| 5. d3 | 3 (1%) | |
| 5. d4 | 1 (0%) | |
| 5. Qa4 | 1 (0%) |
Master games
605 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 36%, draw 28%, Black 36%). The strongest:
- GM So, W. (2788) – GM Magnus Carlsen (2863) 1/2-1/2 · Vugar Gashimov Mem 2015 · 2015-04-25
- GM Magnus Carlsen (2865) – GM Michael Adams (2738) 1-0 · 3rd GRENKE Chess Classic · 2015-02-03
- GM Levon Aronian (2765) – GM Viswanathan Anand (2816) 1/2-1/2 · 3rd Sinquefield Cup 2015 · 2015-08-31
- GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (2789) – GM Fabiano Caruana (2784) 0-1 · GRENKE Chess Classic 2018 · 2018-04-07
- GM Levon Aronian (2786) – GM Veselin Topalov (2780) 1/2-1/2 · FIDE Candidates 2016 · 2016-03-23
Highest-rated Lichess games
- chessrun2020 (2707) – Crownforge_Chess (2642) 0-1 · 2026-09-01 · 600 + 0s
- hierasousse (2590) – vwemby (2578) 0-1 · 2026-09-04 · 180 + 0s
- fifteen_yo_captain (2521) – CM Imlearningchess3434 (2498) 0-1 · 2026-09-01 · 180 + 0s
Comes from
English Opening: King's English Variation, Four Knights Variation, Fianchetto Line (3… Nc6 4. g3) 1. c4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. Nf3 Nc6 4. g3
Continuations
- English Opening: King's English Variation, Four Knights Variation, Fianchetto Line (6… d6 7. O-O O-O) A29 · 1. c4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. Nf3 Nc6 4. g3 Bb4 5. Bg2 Bxc3 6. dxc3 d6 7. O-O O-O
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.