King's Pawn Game: Bavarian Gambit

1. e4 e5 2. c4 d5

The King's Pawn Game: Bavarian Gambit is a chess opening classified as ECO C20, reached after 1. e4 e5 2. c4 d5. It is a line of the King's Pawn Game. White is to move.

In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 62 times by this move order. White won 55%, 6% were drawn and Black won 39%. The most popular continuation is 3. cxd5 (53% of games).

Engine evaluation: +0.81 (Stockfish, depth 34; best line 3. cxd5 c6 4. Nf3 Nf6 5. Nc3 cxd5)

ECO: C20
Moves: 4 plies
FEN: rnbqkbnr/ppp2ppp/8/3pp3/2P1P3/8/PP1P1PPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 0 3
PGN: 1. e4 e5 2. c4 d5

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

Results by rating

Average rating	Games	White / draw / Black
0-1499	44	59%36%
1500-1999	15	47%13%40%
2000+	3	33%67%
All	62	55%39%

Most played moves

Move	Games	White / draw / Black
3. cxd5	33 (53%)	48%42%
3. exd5	7 (11%)	71%29%
3. Nc3	7 (11%)	14%15%71%
3. d3	7 (11%)	86%14%
3. Bd3	2 (3%)	50%50%
3. Nf3	2 (3%)	100%
3. a4	1 (2%)	100%
3. a3	1 (2%)	100%

Highest-rated Lichess games

theAyrat (2035) – cro-stallione (2114) 0-1 · 2026-09-05 · 180 + 0s
Sekosoko (2102) – WEMILO (1931) 1-0 · 2026-09-04 · 180 + 0s
yves-roduit (2008) – Amiriiiiiiii (2007) 0-1 · 2026-09-03 · 180 + 0s

Comes from

English Opening: The Whale 1. e4 e5 2. c4

More King's Pawn Game 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.