King's Pawn Game: Tayler Opening (2… Nc6 3. Be2)

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Be2

The King's Pawn Game: Tayler Opening is a chess opening classified as ECO C44, reached after 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Be2. It is a line of the King's Pawn Game. Black is to move. 2 named lines continue from this position.

In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 5,969 times by this move order. White won 48%, 4% were drawn and Black won 48%. The most popular continuation is 3… Nf6 (45% of games).

Engine evaluation: −0.16 (Stockfish, depth 44; best line 3… Nf6 4. Nc3 d5 5. exd5 Nxd5 6. Bb5)

ECO: C44
Moves: 5 plies
FEN: r1bqkbnr/pppp1ppp/2n5/4p3/4P3/5N2/PPPPBPPP/RNBQK2R b KQkq - 3 3
PGN: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Be2

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

Results by rating

Average rating	Games	White / draw / Black
0-1499	3,205	48%48%
1500-1999	2,531	48%47%
2000+	233	45%48%
All	5,969	48%48%

Most played moves

Move	Games	White / draw / Black
3… Nf6	2,692 (45%)	48%48%
3… Bc5	1,817 (30%)	46%49%
3… d6	565 (9%)	51%45%
3… d5	183 (3%)	48%48%
3… f5	152 (3%)	45%51%
3… h6	136 (2%)	54%44%
3… a6	72 (1%)	49%47%
3… Nd4	62 (1%)	45%52%

Master games

253 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 43%, draw 22%, Black 35%). The strongest:

GM Levon Aronian (2737) – GM Fabiano Caruana (2784) 1-0 · Saint Louis Blitz 2025 · 2025-08-14
GM Levon Aronian (2737) – GM Gukesh D (2776) 1/2-1/2 · Saint Louis Blitz 2025 · 2025-08-14
GM Baadur Jobava (2706) – GM Gata Kamsky (2714) 1-0 · 21st TCh-RUS 2014 · 2014-04-09
GM Raunak Sadhwani (2638) – GM Vincent Keymer (2776) 0-1 · World Blitz 2025 · 2025-12-30
GM Sergei Movsesian (2658) – GM Ruslan Ponomariov (2710) 1/2-1/2 · World Blitz 2015 · 2015-10-13

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

Highest-rated Lichess games

IM German308 (2570) – mowilli (2544) 0-1 · 2026-09-01 · 180 + 2s
IM German308 (2556) – SrMatamales (2484) 1-0 · 2026-09-02 · 180 + 2s
FM Chessdreamer2020 (2467) – FM DiogenesSinopeus (2571) 1-0 · 2026-09-06 · 180 + 0s

Comes from

King's Knight Opening: Normal Variation 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6

Continuations

King's Pawn Game: Tayler Opening (3… Nf6 4. d4) C44 · 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Be2 Nf6 4. d4
King's Pawn Game: Tayler Opening, Inverted Hanham C44 · 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Be2 Nf6 4. d3 d5 5. Nbd2

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.