Portuguese Opening: Portuguese Gambit
1. e4 e5 2. Bb5 Nf6 3. d4
The Portuguese Opening: Portuguese Gambit is a chess opening classified as ECO C20, reached after 1. e4 e5 2. Bb5 Nf6 3. d4. It is a line of the Portuguese Opening. Black is to move.
In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 52 times by this move order. White won 31%, 6% were drawn and Black won 63%. The most popular continuation is 3… exd4 (29% of games).
Engine evaluation: −0.31 (Stockfish, depth 33; best line 3… exd4 4. e5 Qe7 5. Qxd4 Nc6 6. Bxc6)
- ECO
- C20
- Moves
- 5 plies
- FEN
rnbqkb1r/pppp1ppp/5n2/1B2p3/3PP3/8/PPP2PPP/RNBQK1NR b KQkq - 0 3- PGN
1. e4 e5 2. Bb5 Nf6 3. d4
Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess
Results by rating
| Average rating | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 0-1499 | 41 | |
| 1500-1999 | 8 | |
| 2000+ | 3 | |
| All | 52 |
Most played moves
| Move | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 3… exd4 | 15 (29%) | |
| 3… Nxe4 | 14 (27%) | |
| 3… c6 | 8 (15%) | |
| 3… Bb4+ | 5 (10%) | |
| 3… a6 | 5 (10%) | |
| 3… Bd6 | 2 (4%) | |
| 3… Qe7 | 1 (2%) | |
| 3… h6 | 1 (2%) |
Master games
3 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 33%, draw 0%, Black 67%). The strongest:
- IM Sergio Rocha (2392) – GM Zoltan Almasi (2690) 0-1 · 41st Olympiad Open 2014 · 2014-08-05
- FM Ivan Yeletsky (2461) – WIM Jennifer Perez Rodriguez (2251) 1-0 · Titled Tue 24th May Early · 2022-05-24
Search all games of the Portuguese Opening: Portuguese Gambit and its sub-variations
Highest-rated Lichess games
- Le-Cheval-de-Troie (2457) – liangchess (2498) 0-1 · 2026-09-02 · 180 + 2s
- terchon (2410) – zyz7 (2474) 0-1 · 2026-09-02 · 180 + 0s
- tktss (2145) – alfilooooo (2042) 1-0 · 2026-09-02 · 180 + 0s
Comes from
Portuguese Opening 1. e4 e5 2. Bb5
More Portuguese Opening 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.