Hungarian Opening: Sicilian Invitation

1. g3 c5

The Hungarian Opening: Sicilian Invitation is a chess opening classified as ECO A00, reached after 1. g3 c5. It is a line of the Hungarian Opening. White is to move.

In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 8,314 times by this move order. White won 48%, 5% were drawn and Black won 47%. The most popular continuation is 2. Bg2 (89% of games).

Engine evaluation: +0.20 (Stockfish, depth 42; best line 2. Bg2 Nc6 3. c4 g6 4. Nf3 Bg7)

ECO: A00
Moves: 2 plies
FEN: rnbqkbnr/pp1ppppp/8/2p5/8/6P1/PPPPPP1P/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 0 2
PGN: 1. g3 c5

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

Results by rating

Average rating	Games	White / draw / Black
0-1499	2,442	49%47%
1500-1999	4,694	47%48%
2000+	1,178	49%44%
All	8,314	48%47%

Most played moves

Move	Games	White / draw / Black
2. Bg2	7,415 (89%)	48%47%
2. b3	175 (2%)	49%47%
2. Nf3	136 (2%)	50%43%
2. c4	106 (1%)	51%41%
2. d3	89 (1%)	39%55%
2. e3	53 (1%)	42%53%
2. d4	50 (1%)	50%50%
2. f3	42 (1%)	21%71%

Master games

1,709 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 41%, draw 24%, Black 35%). The strongest:

LCZero 0.31-dag-c93c6a8-BT4-61 (3652) – Stockfish dev-20250118-8e3e22b (3683) 1/2-1/2 · TCEC 27 Theory Bonus · 2025-01-25
GM Magnus Carlsen (2864) – GM Leinier Dominguez Perez (2754) 1/2-1/2 · SuperUnited Rapid 2022 · 2022-07-21
GM Fabiano Caruana (2816) – GM So, W. (2778) 0-1 · GCT Blitz YourNextMove · 2018-06-16
GM Magnus Carlsen (2859) – GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda (2731) 1/2-1/2 · Meltwater Tour Final 2022 · 2022-11-20
GM Anish Giri (2790) – GM Sergey Karjakin (2779) 1-0 · Vugar Gashimov Mem 2016 · 2016-05-27

Search all games of the Hungarian Opening: Sicilian Invitation and its sub-variations

Highest-rated Lichess games

Asabiyaa (2684) – ScaryIndianJunior (2790) 1-0 · 2026-09-01 · 180 + 0s
Pblu35 (2614) – Superstitions_Guy (2818) 1/2-1/2 · 2026-09-06 · 180 + 0s
songsololevel (2600) – atsaynm (2677) 0-1 · 2026-09-07 · 180 + 0s

Comes from

Hungarian Opening 1. g3

More Hungarian Opening 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.