Scandinavian Defense: Icelandic-Palme Gambit
1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Nf6 3. c4 e6
The Scandinavian Defense: Icelandic-Palme Gambit is a chess opening classified as ECO B01, reached after 1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Nf6 3. c4 e6. It is a line of the Scandinavian Defense. White is to move.
In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 9,326 times by this move order. White won 45%, 3% were drawn and Black won 52%. The most popular continuation is 4. dxe6 (77% of games).
Engine evaluation: +0.44 (Stockfish, depth 55; best line 4. dxe6 Bxe6 5. Nf3 Qe7 6. Qe2 Nc6)
- ECO
- B01
- Moves
- 6 plies
- FEN
rnbqkb1r/ppp2ppp/4pn2/3P4/2P5/8/PP1P1PPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 0 4- PGN
1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Nf6 3. c4 e6
Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess
Results by rating
| Average rating | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 0-1499 | 1,864 | |
| 1500-1999 | 6,435 | |
| 2000+ | 1,027 | |
| All | 9,326 |
Most played moves
| Move | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 4. dxe6 | 7,210 (77%) | |
| 4. Nc3 | 1,181 (13%) | |
| 4. d4 | 448 (5%) | |
| 4. Qe2 | 167 (2%) | |
| 4. Nf3 | 115 (1%) | |
| 4. Qa4+ | 58 (1%) | |
| 4. d3 | 49 (1%) | |
| 4. Qf3 | 26 (0%) |
Master games
363 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 49%, draw 16%, Black 35%). The strongest:
- IM Johnatan Bakalchuk (2441) – GM Artyom Timofeev (2594) 0-1 · Titled Tuesday 23rd Feb · 2021-02-23
- IM Pavel S. Dvalishvili (2422) – IM Alexander Moskalenko (2490) 1-0 · 70th Moscow Blitz · 2016-09-04
- GM Aleksandra Goryachkina (2567) – IM Andrei Shishkov (2340) 1-0 · Titled Tue 21st Nov Early · 2023-11-21
- GM Nikita Matinian (2470) – IM Jaroslav Ulko (2437) 0-1 · Titled Arena Apr 3rd 2021 · 2021-04-03
- GM Kaiqi Yang (2481) – IM Aleksandr Ostrovskiy (2400) 0-1 · Titled Tue 18th Jun Late · 2024-06-18
Search all games of the Scandinavian Defense: Icelandic-Palme Gambit and its sub-variations
Highest-rated Lichess games
- Johnizard (2653) – GM Sailor1951 (2670) 0-1 · 2026-09-01 · 180 + 0s
- SackOnTheKing930 (2701) – ALBING0 (2557) 1-0 · 2026-09-04 · 180 + 0s
- Player_2211 (2536) – GolfeDuMorbihan (2681) 0-1 · 2026-09-03 · 180 + 0s
Comes from
Scandinavian Defense: Modern Variation (2. exd5 Nf6) 1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Nf6
More Scandinavian Defense lines (all)
- Scandinavian Defense (1. e4 d5) B01
- Scandinavian Defense (1… d5 2. b3) B01
- Scandinavian Defense: Anderssen Counterattack B01
- Scandinavian Defense: Anderssen Counterattack, Collijn Variation B01
- Scandinavian Defense: Anderssen Counterattack, Goteborg System B01
- Scandinavian Defense: Anderssen Counterattack, Orthodox Attack B01
- Scandinavian Defense: Blackburne Gambit B01
- Scandinavian Defense: Blackburne-Kloosterboer Gambit B01
- Scandinavian Defense: Boehnke Gambit B01
- Scandinavian Defense: Bronstein Variation B01
- Scandinavian Defense: Classical Variation B01
- Scandinavian Defense: Grünfeld Variation B01
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.