Four Knights Game: Spanish Variation, Rubinstein Variation (4. Bb5 Nd4)

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bb5 Nd4

The Four Knights Game: Spanish Variation, Rubinstein Variation is a chess opening classified as ECO C48, reached after 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bb5 Nd4. It is a line of the Four Knights Game. White is to move. 4 named lines continue from this position.

In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 1,249 times by this move order. White won 47%, 4% were drawn and Black won 49%. The most popular continuation is 5. Nxd4 (39% of games).

Engine evaluation: +0.05 (Stockfish, depth 55; best line 5. Nxd4 exd4 6. e5 dxc3 7. exf6 Qxf6)

ECO: C48
Moves: 8 plies
FEN: r1bqkb1r/pppp1ppp/5n2/1B2p3/3nP3/2N2N2/PPPP1PPP/R1BQK2R w KQkq - 6 5
PGN: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bb5 Nd4

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

Results by rating

Average rating	Games	White / draw / Black
0-1499	651	47%50%
1500-1999	318	48%50%
2000+	280	48%47%
All	1,249	47%49%

Most played moves

Move	Games	White / draw / Black
5. Nxd4 Spanish Variation, Rubinstein Variation Accepted	489 (39%)	45%52%
5. Nxe5	263 (21%)	49%47%
5. O-O	143 (11%)	54%41%
5. Bc4	132 (11%)	55%43%
5. d3	92 (7%)	43%55%
5. Ba4	73 (6%)	49%49%
5. Be2 Spanish Variation, Rubinstein Variation (4… Nd4 5. Be2)	23 (2%)	52%39%
5. Bd3	15 (1%)	27%73%

Master games

1,425 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 45%, draw 27%, Black 28%). The strongest:

GM Magnus Carlsen (2862) – GM Daniil Dubov (2702) 1/2-1/2 · Airthings Masters KO 2020 · 2020-12-30
GM Yi Wei (2743) – GM Fabiano Caruana (2811) 1/2-1/2 · 80th Tata Steel GpA · 2018-01-24
GM Yi Wei (2736) – GM Liren Ding (2805) 1/2-1/2 · Cote d'Ivoire Blitz 2019 · 2019-05-12
GM Hikaru Nakamura (2768) – GM So, W. (2771) 0-1 · CGC KO 2022 · 2022-11-05
GM Yi Wei (2727) – GM Liren Ding (2808) 1/2-1/2 · TCh-CHN DivA Rapid · 2022-09-07

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

Highest-rated Lichess games

GreenMile2025 (2794) – Sunrise34 (2850) 0-1 · 2026-09-01 · 180 + 0s
FM Tsoi_Dima (2841) – Kruciatos (2774) 1-0 · 2026-09-04 · 180 + 0s
FM Tsoi_Dima (2843) – Kruciatos (2772) 0-1 · 2026-09-04 · 180 + 0s

Comes from

Four Knights Game: Spanish Variation (3… Nf6 4. Bb5) 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bb5

Continuations

Four Knights Game: Spanish Variation, Rubinstein Variation (4… Nd4 5. Be2) C48 · 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bb5 Nd4 5. Be2
Four Knights Game: Spanish Variation, Rubinstein Variation Accepted C48 · 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bb5 Nd4 5. Nxd4
Four Knights Game: Spanish Variation, Rubinstein Variation, Marshall Gambit C48 · 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bb5 Nd4 5. Ba4 Bc5 6. Nxe5 O-O
Four Knights Game: Spanish Variation, Rubinstein Variation, Marshall Variation C48 · 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bb5 Nd4 5. Nxe5 Bc5 6. O-O O-O

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.