King's Gambit Declined: Falkbeer Countergambit, Charousek Gambit (3… e4 4. d3)
1. e4 e5 2. f4 d5 3. exd5 e4 4. d3
The King's Gambit Declined: Falkbeer Countergambit, Charousek Gambit is a chess opening classified as ECO C31, reached after 1. e4 e5 2. f4 d5 3. exd5 e4 4. d3. It is a line of the King's Gambit Declined. Black is to move. 3 named lines continue from this position.
In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 1,241 times by this move order. White won 50%, 5% were drawn and Black won 45%. The most popular continuation is 4… Nf6 (43% of games).
Engine evaluation: +0.16 (Stockfish, depth 50; best line 4… Qxd5 5. Nc3 Bb4 6. Bd2 Bxc3 7. Bxc3)
- ECO
- C31
- Moves
- 7 plies
- FEN
rnbqkbnr/ppp2ppp/8/3P4/4pP2/3P4/PPP3PP/RNBQKBNR b KQkq - 0 4- PGN
1. e4 e5 2. f4 d5 3. exd5 e4 4. d3
Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess
Results by rating
| Average rating | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 0-1499 | 37 | |
| 1500-1999 | 789 | |
| 2000+ | 415 | |
| All | 1,241 |
Most played moves
| Move | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 4… Nf6 | 528 (43%) | |
| 4… Qxd5 | 363 (29%) | |
| 4… exd3 | 237 (19%) | |
| 4… f5 | 59 (5%) | |
| 4… Bc5 | 19 (2%) | |
| 4… Bf5 | 12 (1%) | |
| 4… e3 | 9 (1%) | |
| 4… Qh4+ | 5 (0%) |
Master games
120 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 46%, draw 17%, Black 37%). The strongest:
- Stoofvlees II d9 (3541) – Reckless 0.10.0-dev-9057bc13 (3749) 1/2-1/2 · TCEC 29 Gambit Bonus 2026 · 2026-05-30
- Reckless 0.10.0-dev-9057bc13 (3749) – Stoofvlees II d9 (3541) 1/2-1/2 · TCEC 29 Gambit Bonus 2026 · 2026-05-30
- GM Klementy Sychev (2547) – GM Alexey Sarana (2685) 0-1 · Titled Tue 16th May Early · 2023-05-16
- IM Bharath Subramaniyam H (2479) – GM Alan Pichot (2630) 0-1 · Titled Tuesday 16th Nov · 2021-11-16
- GM Alan Pichot (2647) – IM Jens E Ingebretsen (2407) 1-0 · Titled Tue 16th Jul Late · 2024-07-16
Highest-rated Lichess games
- Velimirov28 (2565) – asd_zxc (2598) 0-1 · 2026-09-02 · 180 + 2s
- aravindArz (2565) – strizibuba (2517) 1-0 · 2026-09-04 · 180 + 0s
- forkthegovernment (2464) – joobree (2524) 0-1 · 2026-09-06 · 180 + 0s
Comes from
King's Gambit Declined: Falkbeer Countergambit, Staunton Line 1. e4 e5 2. f4 d5 3. exd5 e4
Continuations
- King's Gambit Declined: Falkbeer Countergambit, Charousek Gambit Accepted C32 · 1. e4 e5 2. f4 d5 3. exd5 e4 4. d3 Nf6 5. dxe4
- King's Gambit Declined: Falkbeer Countergambit, Charousek Gambit, Keres Variation C32 · 1. e4 e5 2. f4 d5 3. exd5 e4 4. d3 Nf6 5. Nd2
- King's Gambit Declined: Falkbeer Countergambit, Charousek Gambit, Old Line C32 · 1. e4 e5 2. f4 d5 3. exd5 e4 4. d3 Nf6 5. Qe2
More King's Gambit Declined lines (all)
- King's Gambit Declined: Classical Variation (2. f4 Bc5) C30
- King's Gambit Declined: Classical Variation (3… d6 4. c3) C30
- King's Gambit Declined: Classical Variation, Euwe Attack C30
- King's Gambit Declined: Classical Variation, Rotlewi Countergambit C30
- King's Gambit Declined: Classical Variation, Rubinstein Countergambit C30
- King's Gambit Declined: Classical Variation, Walthoffen Attack C30
- King's Gambit Declined: Classical, Hanham Variation C30
- King's Gambit Declined: Classical, Réti Variation C30
- King's Gambit Declined: Classical, Soldatenkov Variation C30
- King's Gambit Declined: Classical, Svenonius Variation C30
- King's Gambit Declined: Hobbs-Zilbermints Gambit C30
- King's Gambit Declined: Keene Defense C30
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.