Owen Defense: Guatemala Defense
1. e4 b6 2. d4 Ba6
The Owen Defense: Guatemala Defense is a chess opening classified as ECO B00, reached after 1. e4 b6 2. d4 Ba6. It is a line of the Owen Defense. White is to move.
In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 1,117 times by this move order. White won 53%, 5% were drawn and Black won 42%. The most popular continuation is 3. Bxa6 (57% of games).
Engine evaluation: +1.73 (Stockfish, depth 53; best line 3. Bxa6 Nxa6 4. Nf3 e6 5. Qe2 Qc8)
- ECO
- B00
- Moves
- 4 plies
- FEN
rn1qkbnr/p1pppppp/bp6/8/3PP3/8/PPP2PPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 1 3- PGN
1. e4 b6 2. d4 Ba6
Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess
Results by rating
| Average rating | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 0-1499 | 396 | |
| 1500-1999 | 660 | |
| 2000+ | 61 | |
| All | 1,117 |
Most played moves
| Move | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 3. Bxa6 | 638 (57%) | |
| 3. c4 | 173 (15%) | |
| 3. Bd3 | 88 (8%) | |
| 3. Nc3 | 83 (7%) | |
| 3. d5 | 42 (4%) | |
| 3. Nf3 | 35 (3%) | |
| 3. Ne2 | 17 (2%) | |
| 3. f3 | 10 (1%) |
Master games
11 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 55%, draw 9%, Black 36%). The strongest:
- GM Anish Giri (2745) – GM Alireza Firouzja (2737) 1-0 · Bullet Chess Losers 2024 · 2024-06-11
- FM Aditya Varun Gampa (2299) – GM Fabiano Caruana (2782) 1/2-1/2 · Titled Tue 25th Jul Late · 2023-07-25
- IM Piotr Brodowski (2463) – Shaaketh Sivakumar (2255) 1-0 · Titled Tue 20th Sep Late · 2022-09-20
- IM Sergey D. Rodchenkov (2346) – CM Patryk Stanisz (2199) 0-1 · Titled Tue 5th Apr Early · 2022-04-05
- Kleyton Alcantara Lima (2108) – FM Jens E Ingebretsen (2342) 0-1 · Titled Tue 13th Jun Early · 2023-06-13
Search all games of the Owen Defense: Guatemala Defense and its sub-variations
Highest-rated Lichess games
- puretraining (2592) – AbcD7-34-6 (2581) 1/2-1/2 · 2026-09-01 · 180 + 0s
- Sokkia (2349) – Gooner_91 (2427) 0-1 · 2026-09-01 · 180 + 0s
- Steinicht (2301) – ProblemDog (2383) 0-1 · 2026-09-04 · 180 + 0s
Comes from
Owen Defense 1. e4 b6
More Owen Defense 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.