Scandinavian Defense: Portuguese Gambit

1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Nf6 3. d4 Bg4

The Scandinavian Defense: Portuguese Gambit is a chess opening classified as ECO B01, reached after 1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Nf6 3. d4 Bg4. It is a line of the Scandinavian Defense. White is to move. 8 named lines continue from this position.

In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 3,879 times by this move order. White won 44%, 5% were drawn and Black won 51%. The most popular continuation is 4. Be2 (41% of games).

Engine evaluation: +0.59 (Stockfish, depth 55; best line 4. f3 Bd7 5. c4 c6 6. Nc3 cxd5)

ECO: B01
Moves: 6 plies
FEN: rn1qkb1r/ppp1pppp/5n2/3P4/3P2b1/8/PPP2PPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 1 4
PGN: 1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Nf6 3. d4 Bg4

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

Results by rating

Average rating	Games	White / draw / Black
0-1499	188	47%50%
1500-1999	2,175	44%52%
2000+	1,516	44%51%
All	3,879	44%51%

Most played moves

Move	Games	White / draw / Black
4. Be2 Portuguese Gambit, Wuss Variation	1,576 (41%)	45%49%
4. f3	1,167 (30%)	42%53%
4. Nf3 Portuguese Gambit, Classical Variation	788 (20%)	47%50%
4. Bb5+	135 (3%)	57%39%
4. Qd3	70 (2%)	43%54%
4. c4	59 (2%)	97%
4. Nc3	26 (1%)	92%
4. Ne2	24 (1%)	67%25%

Master games

309 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 51%, draw 14%, Black 35%). The strongest:

GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (2727) – GM Gukesh D (2758) 1-0 · chess.com SpeedChess 2023 · 2023-09-12
GM Anton Demchenko (2649) – GM Marat Dzhumaev (2469) 1-0 · 2nd Paytakht Cup 2017 · 2017-10-29
GM Boris Savchenko (2613) – IM Alexander Moskalenko (2490) 1-0 · TCh-RUS Rapid 2016 · 2016-10-06
GM Tatiana Kosintseva (2496) – GM Anna Muzychuk (2566) 1-0 · SportAccord Blitz Women 2013 · 2013-12-15
GM Alexander Bagrationi (2454) – GM Yasser Quesada Perez (2601) 0-1 · Titled Tue 25th Apr Late · 2023-04-25

Search all games of the Scandinavian Defense: Portuguese Gambit and its sub-variations

Highest-rated Lichess games

Sunrise34 (2879) – GM Som2310 (2772) 1-0 · 2026-09-06 · 180 + 0s
Freerunning (2712) – Tarnished_3 (2758) 1-0 · 2026-09-03 · 180 + 0s
kletochkaa_2007 (2725) – GolfeDuMorbihan (2681) 1-0 · 2026-09-04 · 180 + 0s

Comes from

Scandinavian Defense: Modern Variation (2… Nf6 3. d4) 1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Nf6 3. d4

Continuations

Scandinavian Defense: Portuguese Gambit, Classical Variation B01 · 1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Nf6 3. d4 Bg4 4. Nf3
Scandinavian Defense: Portuguese Gambit, Wuss Variation B01 · 1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Nf6 3. d4 Bg4 4. Be2
Scandinavian Defense: Portuguese Gambit, Elbow Variation B01 · 1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Nf6 3. d4 Bg4 4. Bb5+ c6
Scandinavian Defense: Portuguese Gambit, Banker Variation B01 · 1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Nf6 3. d4 Bg4 4. f3 Bf5 5. c4
Scandinavian Defense: Portuguese Gambit, Correspondence Refutation B01 · 1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Nf6 3. d4 Bg4 4. f3 Bf5 5. g4
Scandinavian Defense: Portuguese Gambit, Lusophobe Variation B01 · 1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Nf6 3. d4 Bg4 4. Bb5+ Nbd7 5. Be2
Scandinavian Defense: Portuguese Gambit, Jadoul Variation B01 · 1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Nf6 3. d4 Bg4 4. f3 Bf5 5. Bb5+ Nbd7 6. c4
Scandinavian Defense: Portuguese Gambit, Melbourne Shuffle Variation B01 · 1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Nf6 3. d4 Bg4 4. f3 Bf5 5. Bb5+ Nbd7 6. Nc3

More Scandinavian 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.