English Opening: King's English Variation, Four Knights Variation, Fianchetto Line (5. Nf3 Nc6)
1. c4 e5 2. g3 Nf6 3. Bg2 d5 4. cxd5 Nxd5 5. Nf3 Nc6
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. g3 Nf6 3. Bg2 d5 4. cxd5 Nxd5 5. Nf3 Nc6. 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 138 times by this move order. White won 54%, 8% were drawn and Black won 38%. The most popular continuation is 6. O-O (77% of games).
Engine evaluation: +0.13 (Stockfish, depth 50; best line 6. O-O Nb6 7. d3 Be7 8. Nc3 O-O)
- ECO
- A29
- Moves
- 10 plies
- FEN
r1bqkb1r/ppp2ppp/2n5/3np3/8/5NP1/PP1PPPBP/RNBQK2R w KQkq - 2 6- PGN
1. c4 e5 2. g3 Nf6 3. Bg2 d5 4. cxd5 Nxd5 5. Nf3 Nc6
Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess
Results by rating
| Average rating | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 0-1499 | 5 | |
| 1500-1999 | 39 | |
| 2000+ | 94 | |
| All | 138 |
Most played moves
| Move | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 6. O-O | 106 (77%) | |
| 6. Nc3 | 19 (14%) | |
| 6. d3 King's English Variation, Four Knights Variation, Fianchetto Line (5… Nc6 6. d3) | 8 (6%) | |
| 6. d4 | 4 (3%) | |
| 6. a3 | 1 (1%) |
Master games
1,270 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 45%, draw 29%, Black 26%). The strongest:
- GM Anish Giri (2777) – GM Magnus Carlsen (2855) 1/2-1/2 · Meltwater Tour Final 2021 · 2021-10-01
- GM So, W. (2770) – GM Magnus Carlsen (2847) 1/2-1/2 · Magnus Carlsen Inv KO · 2021-03-21
- GM Magnus Carlsen (2863) – GM Hikaru Nakamura (2736) 1/2-1/2 · Carlsen Tour Final 2020 · 2020-08-17
- GM Magnus Carlsen (2863) – GM Hikaru Nakamura (2736) 1/2-1/2 · Carlsen Tour Final 2020 · 2020-08-16
- GM Magnus Carlsen (2863) – GM Hikaru Nakamura (2736) 1-0 · Carlsen Tour Final 2020 · 2020-08-15
Highest-rated Lichess games
- quantumcorrection (2666) – Ariel_mlr (2586) 0-1 · 2026-09-01 · 180 + 0s
- Janet88 (2604) – danylo03 (2594) 0-1 · 2026-09-01 · 180 + 2s
- NM manneredmonkey (2563) – FNENAD (2611) 0-1 · 2026-09-05 · 180 + 0s
Comes from
English Opening: King's English Variation (1. c4 e5) 1. c4 e5
Continuations
- English Opening: King's English Variation, Four Knights Variation, Fianchetto Line (5… Nc6 6. d3) A29 · 1. c4 e5 2. g3 Nf6 3. Bg2 d5 4. cxd5 Nxd5 5. Nf3 Nc6 6. d3
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.