King's Pawn Game: McConnell Defense

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Qf6

The King's Pawn Game: McConnell Defense is a chess opening classified as ECO C40, reached after 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Qf6. It is a line of the King's Pawn Game. White is to move. 1 named line continues from this position.

In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 40,331 times by this move order. White won 50%, 4% were drawn and Black won 46%. The most popular continuation is 3. Bc4 (37% of games).

Engine evaluation: +1.06 (Stockfish, depth 47; best line 3. Nc3 Nc6 4. d4 Bb4 5. Bd2 Nxd4)

ECO: C40
Moves: 4 plies
FEN: rnb1kbnr/pppp1ppp/5q2/4p3/4P3/5N2/PPPP1PPP/RNBQKB1R w KQkq - 2 3
PGN: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Qf6

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

Results by rating

Average rating	Games	White / draw / Black
0-1499	28,412	51%46%
1500-1999	11,615	50%46%
2000+	304	56%39%
All	40,331	50%46%

Most played moves

Move	Games	White / draw / Black
3. Bc4	14,862 (37%)	50%47%
3. Nc3	12,646 (31%)	52%44%
3. d4	6,367 (16%)	51%44%
3. d3	2,021 (5%)	49%47%
3. c3	1,519 (4%)	53%44%
3. Be2	833 (2%)	47%50%
3. b3	549 (1%)	46%50%
3. Bb5	378 (1%)	40%56%

Master games

44 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 66%, draw 0%, Black 34%). The strongest:

IM Sergey D. Rodchenkov (2346) – IM Daniel Dardha (2503) 1-0 · Titled Tuesday 8th June · 2021-06-08
FM Ariel Tokman (2389) – FM Alain Prieto Aranguren (2183) 1-0 · Titled Tue 7th May Late · 2024-05-07
FM Sebastian Almagro Mazariegos (2280) – IM Artem Sadovsky (2276) 1-0 · Titled Tue 5th Apr Late · 2022-04-05
Fabian Morgenroth (1816) – Alija Zekovic (2008) 1-0 · Heusenstamm Schloss Open · 2025-11-21
Albert Lukacs (1921) – Otto Nemeth (1684) 1-0 · FSFMB October 2013 · 2013-10-11

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

Highest-rated Lichess games

ghonaime (2412) – SBHansen (2443) 1-0 · 2026-09-07 · 180 + 0s
Endoy900 (2397) – kingfisherx44 (2452) 1-0 · 2026-09-01 · 180 + 2s
WandererDog (2295) – axemanfire (2256) 1-0 · 2026-09-06 · 180 + 0s

Comes from

King's Knight Opening 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3

Continuations

King's Pawn Game: La Bourdonnais Gambit C40 · 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Qf6 3. Bc4 Qg6 4. O-O

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.