King's Gambit Accepted: Cunningham Defense, McCormick Defense
1. e4 e5 2. f4 exf4 3. Nf3 Be7 4. Bc4 Nf6
The King's Gambit Accepted: Cunningham Defense, McCormick Defense is a chess opening classified as ECO C35, reached after 1. e4 e5 2. f4 exf4 3. Nf3 Be7 4. Bc4 Nf6. It is a line of the King's Gambit Accepted. White is to move.
In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 273 times by this move order. White won 50%, 5% were drawn and Black won 45%. The most popular continuation is 5. Nc3 (30% of games).
Engine evaluation: −0.29 (Stockfish, depth 42; best line 5. e5 Ne4 6. Bd5 Ng5 7. d4 Ne6)
- ECO
- C35
- Moves
- 8 plies
- FEN
rnbqk2r/ppppbppp/5n2/8/2B1Pp2/5N2/PPPP2PP/RNBQK2R w KQkq - 4 5- PGN
1. e4 e5 2. f4 exf4 3. Nf3 Be7 4. Bc4 Nf6
Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess
Results by rating
| Average rating | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 0-1499 | 27 | |
| 1500-1999 | 195 | |
| 2000+ | 51 | |
| All | 273 |
Most played moves
| Move | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 5. Nc3 | 81 (30%) | |
| 5. d3 | 79 (29%) | |
| 5. e5 | 64 (23%) | |
| 5. O-O | 37 (14%) | |
| 5. Bxf7+ | 5 (2%) | |
| 5. d4 | 3 (1%) | |
| 5. Ne5 | 1 (0%) | |
| 5. Qe2 | 1 (0%) |
Master games
44 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 30%, draw 27%, Black 43%). The strongest:
- Stoofvlees II d9 (3541) – Reckless 0.10.0-dev-9057bc13 (3749) 1/2-1/2 · TCEC 29 Gambit Bonus 2026 · 2026-05-31
- Reckless 0.10.0-dev-9057bc13 (3749) – Stoofvlees II d9 (3541) 1/2-1/2 · TCEC 29 Gambit Bonus 2026 · 2026-05-31
- GM Ian Nepomniachtchi (2792) – GM Fabiano Caruana (2776) 1/2-1/2 · Saint Louis Blitz 2022 · 2022-08-30
- Christopher Schwarhofer (2276) – GM Kiril Georgiev (2682) 0-1 · Husek Vienna Open A · 2012-08-14
- IM Johan Furhoff (2318) – IM Frode Olav Olsen Urkedal (2492) 0-1 · Rilton Cup 2013-14 · 2014-01-05
Highest-rated Lichess games
- bingpawn (2475) – NM coco_cr (2420) 1-0 · 2026-09-03 · 180 + 2s
- SparkyMarky (2417) – extasio (2405) 0-1 · 2026-09-05 · 180 + 0s
- IM MILorenzana (2399) – gkiss (2345) 0-1 · 2026-09-01 · 180 + 2s
Comes from
King's Gambit Accepted: Cunningham Defense 1. e4 e5 2. f4 exf4 3. Nf3 Be7
More King's Gambit Accepted lines (all)
- King's Gambit Accepted C33
- King's Gambit Accepted: Basman Gambit C33
- King's Gambit Accepted: Bishop's Gambit C33
- King's Gambit Accepted: Bishop's Gambit, Anderssen Defense C33
- King's Gambit Accepted: Bishop's Gambit, Anderssen Variation C33
- King's Gambit Accepted: Bishop's Gambit, Bledow Countergambit C33
- King's Gambit Accepted: Bishop's Gambit, Bledow Variation C33
- King's Gambit Accepted: Bishop's Gambit, Boden Variation C33
- King's Gambit Accepted: Bishop's Gambit, Bogoljubow Defense C33
- King's Gambit Accepted: Bishop's Gambit, Bogoljubow Variation C33
- King's Gambit Accepted: Bishop's Gambit, Boren-Svenonius Variation C33
- King's Gambit Accepted: Bishop's Gambit, Bryan Countergambit C33
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.