English Opening: King's English Variation, Reversed Closed Sicilian (5… Nc6 6. Bg2)
1. c4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. g3 Bb4 4. e4 O-O 5. Nge2 Nc6 6. Bg2
The English Opening: King's English Variation, Reversed Closed Sicilian is a chess opening classified as ECO A25, reached after 1. c4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. g3 Bb4 4. e4 O-O 5. Nge2 Nc6 6. Bg2. 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 2 times by this move order. White won 50%, 0% were drawn and Black won 50%. The most popular continuation is 6… d6 (100% of games).
Engine evaluation: +0.22 (Stockfish, depth 34; best line 6… d6 7. d3 Bc5 8. h3 a6 9. a3)
- ECO
- A25
- Moves
- 11 plies
- FEN
r1bq1rk1/pppp1ppp/2n2n2/4p3/1bP1P3/2N3P1/PP1PNPBP/R1BQK2R b KQ - 4 6- PGN
1. c4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. g3 Bb4 4. e4 O-O 5. Nge2 Nc6 6. Bg2
Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess
Results by rating
| Average rating | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 1500-1999 | 1 | |
| 2000+ | 1 | |
| All | 2 |
Most played moves
| Move | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 6… d6 | 2 (100%) |
Master games
5 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 20%, draw 20%, Black 60%). The strongest:
- GM Fabiano Caruana (2764) – GM Sergey Grigoriants (2562) 1/2-1/2 · Titled Tue 16th May Late · 2023-05-16
- GM Samuel Sevian (2701) – GM Samvel Ter-Sahakyan (2613) 1-0 · 1st 3-0 Thu 27th Nov 2025 · 2025-11-27
- GM Fabiano Caruana (2766) – GM Denis Makhnev (2483) 0-1 · Titled Tue 14th Mar Early · 2023-03-14
- WIM Polina Shuvalova (2418) – WFM Zarina Shafigullina (2240) 0-1 · 72nd ch-RUS HL Women · 2019-07-03
- Dinh Trung Nguyen (2000) – FM Antonio P Santos (2178) 0-1 · Titled Tue 24th Feb 2026 · 2026-02-24
Highest-rated Lichess games
- Magnus_Recruitments (2133) – LarsiwanGER (2141) 1-0 · 2026-09-07 · 180 + 2s
- npuj1 (1519) – Saraaaah (1521) 0-1 · 2026-09-03 · 300 + 3s
Comes from
English Opening: King's English Variation, Two Knights Variation, Smyslov System 1. c4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. g3 Bb4
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.