Grob Opening: London Defense
1. g4 e5 2. h3 Nc6
The Grob Opening: London Defense is a chess opening classified as ECO A00, reached after 1. g4 e5 2. h3 Nc6. It is a line of the Grob Opening. White is to move.
In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 40 times by this move order. White won 55%, 2% were drawn and Black won 43%. The most popular continuation is 3. Bg2 (35% of games).
Engine evaluation: −0.93 (Stockfish, depth 32; best line 3. c4 Nge7 4. Nf3 h5 5. gxh5 d5)
- ECO
- A00
- Moves
- 4 plies
- FEN
r1bqkbnr/pppp1ppp/2n5/4p3/6P1/7P/PPPPPP2/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 1 3- PGN
1. g4 e5 2. h3 Nc6
Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess
Results by rating
| Average rating | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 0-1499 | 29 | |
| 1500-1999 | 10 | |
| 2000+ | 1 | |
| All | 40 |
Most played moves
| Move | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 3. Bg2 | 14 (35%) | |
| 3. e3 | 13 (33%) | |
| 3. d3 | 5 (13%) | |
| 3. f3 | 2 (5%) | |
| 3. Nf3 | 2 (5%) | |
| 3. b3 | 1 (3%) | |
| 3. Nc3 | 1 (3%) | |
| 3. e4 | 1 (3%) |
Master games
1 over-the-board game is classified under this line (White 100%, draw 0%, Black 0%). The strongest:
- FM Orest Vovk (2315) – CM Wojciech Smieszek (2106) 1-0 · Titled Tue 8th Sep 2026 · 2026-09-08
Search all games of the Grob Opening: London Defense and its sub-variations
Highest-rated Lichess games
- Apostol880 (2207) – itzrealmevs (2026) 0-1 · 2026-09-03 · 600 + 0s
- sega55555 (1996) – Alejandro_Wall (1925) 1-0 · 2026-09-01 · 180 + 2s
- Kentee (1887) – jonkimura34 (1869) 1-0 · 2026-09-05 · 180 + 0s
Comes from
Grob Opening 1. g4
More Grob Opening lines (all)
- Grob Opening: Alessi Gambit A00
- Grob Opening: Double Grob A00
- Grob Opening: Double Grob, Coca-Cola Gambit A00
- Grob Opening: Grob Gambit A00
- Grob Opening: Grob Gambit Declined A00
- Grob Opening: Grob Gambit, Basman Gambit A00
- Grob Opening: Grob Gambit, Fritz Gambit A00
- Grob Opening: Grob Gambit, Fritz Gambit, Romford Countergambit A00
- Grob Opening: Grob Gambit, Keres Gambit A00
- Grob Opening: Grob Gambit, Richter-Grob Gambit A00
- Grob Opening: Keene Defense A00
- Grob Opening: Keene Defense, Main Line A00
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.