English Opening: King's English Variation (1. c4 e5)

1. c4 e5

English Opening: King's English Variation after 1. c4 e5 87654321abcdefgh

The English Opening: King's English Variation is a chess opening classified as ECO A20, reached after 1. c4 e5. It is a line of the English Opening. White is to move. 7 named lines continue from this position.

In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 118,181 times by this move order. White won 51%, 5% were drawn and Black won 44%. The most popular continuation is 2. Nc3 (60% of games).

Engine evaluation: +0.14 (Stockfish, depth 60; best line 2. g3 c6 3. Nf3 e4 4. Nd4 d5)

ECO
A20
Moves
2 plies
FEN
rnbqkbnr/pppp1ppp/8/4p3/2P5/8/PP1PPPPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 0 2
PGN
1. c4 e5

Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess

Results by rating

Average ratingGamesWhite / draw / Black
0-149940,73751%45%
1500-199960,46952%44%
2000+16,97550%44%
All118,18151%44%

Most played moves

MoveGamesWhite / draw / Black
2. Nc3
King's English Variation, Reversed Sicilian		70,327 (60%)52%44%
2. g319,017 (16%)53%43%
2. e39,184 (8%)52%44%
2. e45,536 (5%)47%49%
2. d33,709 (3%)50%45%
2. d42,902 (2%)47%49%
2. Nf3
King's English Variation, Nimzowitsch Variation		2,608 (2%)50%46%
2. a31,808 (2%)51%45%

Master games

19,810 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 42%, draw 24%, Black 34%). The strongest:

Search all games of the English Opening: King's English Variation and its sub-variations

Highest-rated Lichess games

Comes from

English Opening 1. c4

Continuations

More English Opening lines (all)

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.