King's Pawn Opening: Van Hooydoon Gambit

1. e4 e5 2. Qe2 Nc6 3. c3 Nf6 4. Nf3 Bc5 5. d4 exd4 6. cxd4 Nxd4

The King's Pawn Opening: Van Hooydoon Gambit is a chess opening classified as ECO C20, reached after 1. e4 e5 2. Qe2 Nc6 3. c3 Nf6 4. Nf3 Bc5 5. d4 exd4 6. cxd4 Nxd4. It is a line of the King's Pawn Opening. White is to move.

This exact move order didn't appear in our sample of 12.6 million Lichess games: it's a rare line.

Engine evaluation: −1.11 (Stockfish, depth 37; best line 7. Nxd4 Bxd4 8. Be3 Bxe3 9. Qxe3 O-O)

ECO

C20

Moves

12 plies

FEN

r1bqk2r/pppp1ppp/5n2/2b5/3nP3/5N2/PP2QPPP/RNB1KB1R w KQkq - 0 7

PGN

1. e4 e5 2. Qe2 Nc6 3. c3 Nf6 4. Nf3 Bc5 5. d4 exd4 6. cxd4 Nxd4

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

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.