King's Gambit Accepted: Wagenbach Defense
1. e4 e5 2. f4 exf4 3. Nf3 h5
The King's Gambit Accepted: Wagenbach Defense is a chess opening classified as ECO C34, reached after 1. e4 e5 2. f4 exf4 3. Nf3 h5. 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 88 times by this move order. White won 59%, 5% were drawn and Black won 36%. The most popular continuation is 4. Bc4 (47% of games).
Engine evaluation: +0.87 (Stockfish, depth 45; best line 4. d4 d5 5. exd5 Nf6 6. c4 c6)
- ECO
- C34
- Moves
- 6 plies
- FEN
rnbqkbnr/pppp1pp1/8/7p/4Pp2/5N2/PPPP2PP/RNBQKB1R w KQkq - 0 4- PGN
1. e4 e5 2. f4 exf4 3. Nf3 h5
Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess
Results by rating
| Average rating | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 0-1499 | 26 | |
| 1500-1999 | 58 | |
| 2000+ | 4 | |
| All | 88 |
Most played moves
| Move | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 4. Bc4 | 41 (47%) | |
| 4. d4 | 35 (40%) | |
| 4. h4 | 8 (9%) | |
| 4. Be2 | 2 (2%) | |
| 4. d3 | 1 (1%) | |
| 4. h3 | 1 (1%) |
Master games
4 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 50%, draw 25%, Black 25%). The strongest:
- FM Seit-Amet Karaev (2280) – WFM Regita Desyari Putri (1897) 1-0 · Titled Tue 23rd Aug Early · 2022-08-23
- Aaron Cooper (1904) – Daniel Herman (1927) 0-1 · Titled Tue 12th Sep Early · 2023-09-12
Search all games of the King's Gambit Accepted: Wagenbach Defense and its sub-variations
Highest-rated Lichess games
- chessmoreno (2113) – frankycor (2068) 1-0 · 2026-09-07 · 180 + 0s
- idiota1974 (2077) – Jan_inij (2081) 1-0 · 2026-09-02 · 600 + 0s
- xray99 (1961) – Oliullah_BD (2088) 0-1 · 2026-09-04 · 600 + 0s
Comes from
King's Gambit Accepted: King's Knight's Gambit (2… exf4 3. Nf3) 1. e4 e5 2. f4 exf4 3. Nf3
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.