English Opening: King's English Variation, Four Knights Variation, Fianchetto Line (6… Be7 7. O-O O-O)
1. c4 e5 2. g3 Nf6 3. Bg2 d5 4. cxd5 Nxd5 5. Nf3 Nc6 6. d3 Be7 7. O-O O-O
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 6. d3 Be7 7. O-O O-O. 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 1 times by this move order. White won 0%, 0% were drawn and Black won 100%. The most popular continuation is 8. Nc3 (100% of games).
Engine evaluation: 0.00 (Stockfish, depth 40; best line 8. Nc3 Be6 9. Nxd5 Bxd5 10. Be3 Qd7)
- ECO
- A29
- Moves
- 14 plies
- FEN
r1bq1rk1/ppp1bppp/2n5/3np3/8/3P1NP1/PP2PPBP/RNBQ1RK1 w - - 3 8- PGN
1. c4 e5 2. g3 Nf6 3. Bg2 d5 4. cxd5 Nxd5 5. Nf3 Nc6 6. d3 Be7 7. O-O O-O
Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess
Results by rating
| Average rating | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 2000+ | 1 | |
| All | 1 |
Most played moves
| Move | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 8. Nc3 | 1 (100%) |
Master games
24 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 46%, draw 33%, Black 21%). The strongest:
- GM Rauf Mamedov (2640) – GM Samuel Sevian (2698) 1/2-1/2 · AI Cup Div 3 W · 2023-09-29
- GM Xiangyu Xu (2615) – GM Hao Wang (2698) 1/2-1/2 · 15th Nat PRC KO Men · 2025-09-28
- GM Vladimir Fedoseev (2661) – IM Vadim Moiseenko (2487) 1-0 · St.Petersburg Blitz 2014 · 2014-12-07
- FM Denis Makhnev (2358) – GM Karen H. Grigoryan (2609) 1/2-1/2 · World Junior Open 2015 · 2015-09-14
- GM Maciej Klekowski (2510) – FM Stanislaw Zylka (2312) 1/2-1/2 · TCh-POL 1st League 2021 · 2021-09-08
Highest-rated Lichess games
- bakunochi (2447) – cherrypie00 (2482) 0-1 · 2026-09-05 · 180 + 2s
Comes from
English Opening: King's English Variation, Four Knights Variation, Fianchetto Line (5… Nc6 6. d3) 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.