King's Pawn Game: Leonardis Variation

1. e4 e5 2. d3

The King's Pawn Game: Leonardis Variation is a chess opening classified as ECO C20, reached after 1. e4 e5 2. d3. It is a line of the King's Pawn Game. 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 89,466 times by this move order. White won 48%, 4% were drawn and Black won 48%. The most popular continuation is 2… Nc6 (38% of games).

Engine evaluation: 0.00 (Stockfish, depth 61; best line 2… Nc6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. g3 Bc5 5. Bg2)

ECO: C20
Moves: 3 plies
FEN: rnbqkbnr/pppp1ppp/8/4p3/4P3/3P4/PPP2PPP/RNBQKBNR b KQkq - 0 2
PGN: 1. e4 e5 2. d3

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

Results by rating

Average rating	Games	White / draw / Black
0-1499	56,963	48%48%
1500-1999	31,139	48%48%
2000+	1,364	50%45%
All	89,466	48%48%

Most played moves

Move	Games	White / draw / Black
2… Nc6	34,133 (38%)	47%48%
2… Nf6	17,945 (20%)	47%49%
2… d6	10,921 (12%)	49%46%
2… Bc5	10,371 (12%)	48%48%
2… d5	5,575 (6%)	49%47%
2… Qf6	1,984 (2%)	49%47%
2… h6	1,954 (2%)	47%49%
2… f5 Clam Variation, King's Gambit Reversed	1,146 (1%)	48%47%

Master games

563 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 42%, draw 9%, Black 49%). The strongest:

GM Fabiano Caruana (2795) – GM Magnus Carlsen (2840) 0-1 · World Blitz Final KO 2025 · 2025-12-30
GM Fabiano Caruana (2822) – GM Levon Aronian (2767) 0-1 · chess.com Speed 1m+1spm 2017 · 2018-07-24
GM Levon Aronian (2781) – GM Alexander Grischuk (2777) 0-1 · Levitov Christmas Final · 2020-12-25
GM Fabiano Caruana (2795) – GM So, W. (2753) 1/2-1/2 · American Cup Blitz 2026 · 2026-03-02
GM Fabiano Caruana (2795) – GM Quang Liem Le (2731) 1-0 · Titled Tue 13th Jan 2026 · 2026-01-13

Search all games of the King's Pawn Game: Leonardis Variation and its sub-variations

Highest-rated Lichess games

NinjaChessSamurai (2484) – mightysonce (2468) 1-0 · 2026-09-04 · 180 + 0s
FM AlexVerzhansky (2454) – slabovid4 (2489) 1-0 · 2026-09-06 · 180 + 0s
ph0rial (2403) – NM Oleksiy_Gross (2529) 0-1 · 2026-09-07 · 180 + 0s

Comes from

King's Pawn Game (1. e4 e5) 1. e4 e5

Continuations

King's Pawn Game: Clam Variation, King's Gambit Reversed C20 · 1. e4 e5 2. d3 f5
King's Pawn Game: Clam Variation, Radisch Gambit C20 · 1. e4 e5 2. d3 Nf6 3. f4 Bc5
King's Pawn Game: Weber Gambit C20 · 1. e4 e5 2. d3 d5 3. exd5 c6 4. dxc6 Nxc6

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.