Four Knights Game: Spanish Variation, Bardeleben Variation

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bb5 Bc5 5. O-O O-O 6. Nxe5 Nxe5 7. d4 Bd6 8. f4 Nc6 9. e5 Bb4

The Four Knights Game: Spanish Variation, Bardeleben Variation is a chess opening classified as ECO C48, reached after 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bb5 Bc5 5. O-O O-O 6. Nxe5 Nxe5 7. d4 Bd6 8. f4 Nc6 9. e5 Bb4. It is a line of the Four Knights Game. 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: +0.29 (Stockfish, depth 30; best line 10. exf6 Qxf6 11. a3 Bxc3 12. bxc3 a6)

ECO: C48
Moves: 18 plies
FEN: r1bq1rk1/pppp1ppp/2n2n2/1B2P3/1b1P1P2/2N5/PPP3PP/R1BQ1RK1 w - - 1 10
PGN: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bb5 Bc5 5. O-O O-O 6. Nxe5 Nxe5 7. d4 Bd6 8. f4 Nc6 9. e5 Bb4

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

Master games

16 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 31%, draw 50%, Black 19%). The strongest:

GM David W L Howell (2655) – IM Sarasadat Khademalsharieh (2452) 1-0 · Gibraltar Masters 2017 · 2017-01-25
GM Denis Kadric (2581) – IM Lawrence Trent (2399) 1-0 · Titled Tuesday 6th Apr · 2021-04-06
IM David Gochelashvili (2416) – GM Nikita Petrov (2562) 1/2-1/2 · Malaya Zemlya Blitz 2021 · 2021-07-09
IM Guanchu Liu (2366) – GM Chen Lin (2519) 1/2-1/2 · CHN Team Men 2016 · 2016-08-01
IM Nail Bashirli (2324) – IM Vugar Asadli (2471) 1/2-1/2 · 74th ch-AZE 2019 · 2019-01-16

Search all games of the Four Knights Game: Spanish Variation, Bardeleben Variation and its sub-variations

Comes from

Four Knights Game: Spanish Variation, Classical Variation 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bb5 Bc5

More Four Knights Game 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.