English Opening: King's English Variation, Reversed Closed Sicilian (4… Bb4 5. Nd5)
1. c4 e5 2. g3 Nf6 3. Bg2 Nc6 4. Nc3 Bb4 5. Nd5
The English Opening: King's English Variation, Reversed Closed Sicilian is a chess opening classified as ECO A25, reached after 1. c4 e5 2. g3 Nf6 3. Bg2 Nc6 4. Nc3 Bb4 5. Nd5. It is a line of the English Opening. Black is to move.
In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 119 times by this move order. White won 57%, 7% were drawn and Black won 36%. The most popular continuation is 5… Nxd5 (31% of games).
Engine evaluation: +0.33 (Stockfish, depth 50; best line 5… Be7 6. a3 d6 7. e3 Nxd5 8. cxd5)
- ECO
- A25
- Moves
- 9 plies
- FEN
r1bqk2r/pppp1ppp/2n2n2/3Np3/1bP5/6P1/PP1PPPBP/R1BQK1NR b KQkq - 6 5- PGN
1. c4 e5 2. g3 Nf6 3. Bg2 Nc6 4. Nc3 Bb4 5. Nd5
Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess
Results by rating
| Average rating | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 0-1499 | 16 | |
| 1500-1999 | 36 | |
| 2000+ | 67 | |
| All | 119 |
Most played moves
| Move | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 5… Nxd5 | 37 (31%) | |
| 5… Bc5 | 28 (24%) | |
| 5… O-O | 27 (23%) | |
| 5… Be7 | 9 (8%) | |
| 5… a5 | 9 (8%) | |
| 5… d6 | 5 (4%) | |
| 5… Ba5 | 2 (2%) | |
| 5… Bf8 | 1 (1%) |
Master games
362 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 44%, draw 20%, Black 36%). The strongest:
- GM Hao Wang (2736) – GM Laurent Fressinet (2708) 1/2-1/2 · FIDE GP Paris · 2013-10-04
- GM Shant Sargsyan (2666) – GM Hans Moke Niemann (2736) 0-1 · Titled Tue 13th May Late · 2025-05-13
- GM M. Amin Tabatabaei (2673) – GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda (2725) 1-0 · Titled Tue 5th Aug Early · 2025-08-05
- GM Vasyl Ivanchuk (2733) – GM Qun Ma (2609) 1/2-1/2 · TCh-CHN 2015 · 2015-06-05
- GM Evgeny Tomashevsky (2705) – GM Ivan Popov (2636) 1/2-1/2 · Mark Dvoretsky Mem 2019 · 2019-12-11
Highest-rated Lichess games
- Konsolidasyon (2650) – GM leva1958 (2617) 1-0 · 2026-09-07 · 180 + 2s
- FM GHMackenzie (2586) – SnoopyDoggy (2611) 0-1 · 2026-09-02 · 180 + 0s
- Energetic_IP (2548) – SnoopyDoggy (2618) 1-0 · 2026-09-02 · 180 + 0s
Comes from
English Opening: King's English Variation (1. c4 e5) 1. c4 e5
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.