Van Geet Opening

1. Nc3

Van Geet Opening after 1. Nc3 87654321abcdefgh

The Van Geet Opening is a chess opening classified as ECO A00, reached after 1. Nc3. Black is to move. 20 named lines continue from this position.

In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 55,035 times by this move order. White won 49%, 4% were drawn and Black won 47%. The most popular continuation is 1… e5 (30% of games).

Engine evaluation: −0.04 (Stockfish, depth 58; best line 1… d5 2. d4 Nf6 3. Bf4 e6 4. Nb5)

ECO
A00
Moves
1 plies
FEN
rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/8/2N5/PPPPPPPP/R1BQKBNR b KQkq - 1 1
PGN
1. Nc3

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

Results by rating

Average ratingGamesWhite / draw / Black
0-149926,30548%48%
1500-199920,46750%46%
2000+8,26350%45%
All55,03549%47%

Most played moves

MoveGamesWhite / draw / Black
1… e5
Reversed Nimzowitsch		16,652 (30%)49%47%
1… d512,711 (23%)48%48%
1… Nf67,245 (13%)49%47%
1… e64,267 (8%)49%46%
1… c53,071 (6%)48%47%
1… c62,786 (5%)47%49%
1… g62,405 (4%)50%45%
1… d61,792 (3%)49%45%

Master games

7,499 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 49%, draw 14%, Black 37%). The strongest:

Search all games of the Van Geet Opening and its sub-variations

Highest-rated Lichess games

Continuations

More Van Geet 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.