English Opening: Symmetrical, Hedgehog, Flexible Formation

1. c4 e6 2. Nf3 c5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. g3 b6 5. Bg2 Bb7 6. O-O Be7 7. d4 cxd4 8. Qxd4 d6 9. Rd1 a6 10. b3 Nbd7

The English Opening: Symmetrical, Hedgehog, Flexible Formation is a chess opening classified as ECO A30, reached after 1. c4 e6 2. Nf3 c5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. g3 b6 5. Bg2 Bb7 6. O-O Be7 7. d4 cxd4 8. Qxd4 d6 9. Rd1 a6 10. b3 Nbd7. It is a line of the English Opening. White is to move.

This exact move order didn't appear in our sample of 12.6 million Lichess games: it's a rare line.

Engine evaluation: +0.27 (Stockfish, depth 34; best line 11. Ba3 Nc5 12. e4 Rc8 13. Ne1 O-O)

ECO

A30

Moves

20 plies

FEN

r2qk2r/1b1nbppp/pp1ppn2/8/2PQ4/1PN2NP1/P3PPBP/R1BR2K1 w kq - 1 11

PGN

1. c4 e6 2. Nf3 c5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. g3 b6 5. Bg2 Bb7 6. O-O Be7 7. d4 cxd4 8. Qxd4 d6 9. Rd1 a6 10. b3 Nbd7

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

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.