Philidor Defense: Lion Variation, Lion's Claw, with Bc4 and h6
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 Nf6 4. Nc3 Nbd7 5. Bc4 Be7 6. O-O h6
The Philidor Defense: Lion Variation, Lion's Claw, with Bc4 and h6 is a chess opening classified as ECO C41, reached after 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 Nf6 4. Nc3 Nbd7 5. Bc4 Be7 6. O-O h6. It is a line of the Philidor Defense. White is to move.
In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 1 times by this move order. White won 0%, 0% were drawn and Black won 100%. The most popular continuation is 7. dxe5 (100% of games).
Engine evaluation: +0.51 (Stockfish, depth 50; best line 7. a4 c6 8. Re1 a5 9. h3 g5)
- ECO
- C41
- Moves
- 12 plies
- FEN
r1bqk2r/pppnbpp1/3p1n1p/4p3/2BPP3/2N2N2/PPP2PPP/R1BQ1RK1 w kq - 0 7- PGN
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 Nf6 4. Nc3 Nbd7 5. Bc4 Be7 6. O-O h6
Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess
Results by rating
| Average rating | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 2000+ | 1 | |
| All | 1 |
Most played moves
| Move | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 7. dxe5 | 1 (100%) |
Master games
3 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 100%, draw 0%, Black 0%). The strongest:
- GM Adam Tukhaev (2520) – Christian Terraz (2125) 1-0 · 6th Paleochora Open · 2013-07-23
- IM Ruslan Kurayan (2411) – Christian Terraz (2079) 1-0 · Basel Master Open 2014 · 2014-01-01
- Busra Soydan (1709) – WC Lilia Ivonne Fuentes Godoy (1829) 1-0 · 31st World Junior Girls · 2013-09-18
Highest-rated Lichess games
- maxauditor (2338) – OldenEra (2316) 0-1 · 2026-09-01 · 180 + 0s
Comes from
Philidor Defense: Lion Variation 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 Nf6 4. Nc3 Nbd7
More Philidor Defense lines (all)
- Philidor Defense (2. Nf3 d6) C41
- Philidor Defense (2… d6 3. d4) C41
- Philidor Defense (2… d6 3. Bc4) C41
- Philidor Defense (3. Bc4 Be7) C41
- Philidor Defense: Albin-Blackburne Gambit C41
- Philidor Defense: Berger Variation C41
- Philidor Defense: Bird Gambit C41
- Philidor Defense: Boden Variation C41
- Philidor Defense: Exchange Variation (3. d4 exd4) C41
- Philidor Defense: Exchange Variation (3… exd4 4. Nxd4) C41
- Philidor Defense: Exchange Variation (4. Nxd4 Nf6) C41
- Philidor Defense: Hanham Variation C41
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.