Hungarian Opening: Reversed Norwegian Defense
1. g3 e5 2. Nf3 e4 3. Nh4
The Hungarian Opening: Reversed Norwegian Defense is a chess opening classified as ECO A00, reached after 1. g3 e5 2. Nf3 e4 3. Nh4. It is a line of the Hungarian Opening. Black is to move.
In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 21 times by this move order. White won 43%, 5% were drawn and Black won 52%. The most popular continuation is 3… d5 (62% of games).
Engine evaluation: −0.21 (Stockfish, depth 38; best line 3… d5 4. d3 f5 5. c4 dxc4 6. Bh3)
- ECO
- A00
- Moves
- 5 plies
- FEN
rnbqkbnr/pppp1ppp/8/8/4p2N/6P1/PPPPPP1P/RNBQKB1R b KQkq - 1 3- PGN
1. g3 e5 2. Nf3 e4 3. Nh4
Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess
Results by rating
| Average rating | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 0-1499 | 8 | |
| 1500-1999 | 8 | |
| 2000+ | 5 | |
| All | 21 |
Most played moves
| Move | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 3… d5 | 13 (62%) | |
| 3… Be7 | 4 (19%) | |
| 3… Nc6 | 1 (5%) | |
| 3… Nf6 | 1 (5%) | |
| 3… d6 | 1 (5%) | |
| 3… Bc5 | 1 (5%) |
Master games
26 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 42%, draw 23%, Black 35%). The strongest:
- GM David W L Howell (2668) – GM Fabiano Caruana (2776) 1-0 · Titled Tue 6th May Early · 2025-05-06
- GM Benjamin Gledura (2663) – GM Santosh Gujrathi Vidit (2720) 0-1 · Chess.com Classic Play-In · 2025-05-19
- GM Aram Hakobyan (2613) – GM Shamsiddin Vokhidov (2640) 1/2-1/2 · Asrian Mem Blitz 2025 · 2025-11-30
- GM Richard Rapport (2709) – GM Evgeny Gleizerov (2531) 1-0 · Vladimir Petrov Mem 2015 · 2015-03-08
- IM Marcus R Harvey (2438) – GM Ilia Smirin (2554) 1-0 · 15th London Classic Open · 2025-11-28
Search all games of the Hungarian Opening: Reversed Norwegian Defense and its sub-variations
Highest-rated Lichess games
- Pathseeker17 (2431) – ERDI22 (2439) 0-1 · 2026-09-07 · 600 + 0s
- KeineWitze (2274) – Guzzian (2248) 0-1 · 2026-09-03 · 600 + 0s
- migrainemonster (2281) – Chessw47 (2186) 0-1 · 2026-09-06 · 900 + 10s
Comes from
Hungarian Opening: Reversed Alekhine 1. g3 e5 2. Nf3
More Hungarian Opening lines (all)
- Hungarian Opening A00
- Hungarian Opening: Asten Gambit A00
- Hungarian Opening: Burk Gambit A00
- Hungarian Opening: Bücker Gambit A00
- Hungarian Opening: Catalan Formation A00
- Hungarian Opening: Dutch Defense A00
- Hungarian Opening: Indian Defense A00
- Hungarian Opening: Myers Defense A00
- Hungarian Opening: Pachman Gambit A00
- Hungarian Opening: Paris Gambit A00
- Hungarian Opening: Reversed Brooklyn Defense, Brooklyn Benko Gambit A00
- Hungarian Opening: Reversed Modern Defense 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.