Englund Gambit: Soller Gambit Deferred

1. d4 e5 2. dxe5 Nc6 3. Nf3 f6

The Englund Gambit: Soller Gambit Deferred is a chess opening classified as ECO A40, reached after 1. d4 e5 2. dxe5 Nc6 3. Nf3 f6. It is a line of the Englund Gambit. White is to move.

In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 1,721 times by this move order. White won 53%, 3% were drawn and Black won 44%. The most popular continuation is 4. exf6 (73% of games).

Engine evaluation: +1.88 (Stockfish, depth 55; best line 4. e4 Bc5 5. Nc3 Bb4 6. exf6 Bxc3+)

ECO: A40
Moves: 6 plies
FEN: r1bqkbnr/pppp2pp/2n2p2/4P3/8/5N2/PPP1PPPP/RNBQKB1R w KQkq - 0 4
PGN: 1. d4 e5 2. dxe5 Nc6 3. Nf3 f6

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

Results by rating

Average rating	Games	White / draw / Black
0-1499	1,013	53%44%
1500-1999	546	52%45%
2000+	162	51%45%
All	1,721	53%44%

Most played moves

Move	Games	White / draw / Black
4. exf6	1,248 (73%)	53%44%
4. Bf4	228 (13%)	54%42%
4. Nc3	71 (4%)	45%51%
4. e4	66 (4%)	45%52%
4. e6	35 (2%)	57%34%
4. e3	27 (2%)	67%26%
4. g3	14 (1%)	64%36%
4. Qd5	12 (1%)	42%50%

Master games

16 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 69%, draw 6%, Black 25%). The strongest:

FM Andrei Olhovik (2282) – GM Magnus Carlsen (2837) 0-1 · Titled Tue 13th May Early · 2025-05-13
IM Harshavardhan G B (2397) – IM Kamran Shirazi (2349) 1-0 · Titled Arena Apr 3rd 2021 · 2021-04-03
IM Jose Francisco R P Neves Veiga (2377) – FM Daniil Postnikov (2360) 0-1 · Titled Tue 14th Jun Late · 2022-06-14
CM Eyal Noy (2216) – IM Shamil Arslanov (2410) 1-0 · Titled Tue 10th Sep Early · 2024-09-10
FM Evgeny Ermolaev (2282) – FM Antonios Gkavardinas (2302) 1-0 · Titled Tue 29th Apr Late · 2025-04-29

Search all games of the Englund Gambit: Soller Gambit Deferred and its sub-variations

Highest-rated Lichess games

Dobry_Ostankinets (2567) – IM KamranShirazi (2445) 1-0 · 2026-09-07 · 180 + 0s
Pastukhov_Nicolay (2498) – IM KamranShirazi (2407) 0-1 · 2026-09-05 · 180 + 0s
MrHR (2434) – Lesschess89 (2382) 1-0 · 2026-09-01 · 180 + 0s

Comes from

Englund Gambit 1. d4 e5

More Englund Gambit 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.