King's Pawn Game
Overview
King's Pawn Game is a top-level opening within the Open Games family, catalogued as ECO C20 — a starting point from which dozens of named sub-variations branch out.
The Open Games group covers open games — classical 1.e4 e5 openings where both sides contest the centre directly with pawns.
Play reaches this position via 1. e4 e5, after 2 plies of opening development.
The line has 19 documented children — Bishop's Opening, Bongcloud Attack, Center Game, and others being widely played.
This is a deep theory tree with 1021 total sub-variations across all depths — one of the larger branches in chess theory.
Explore the position on the interactive board, study its real-world results from Lichess, and challenge the engine when you are ready.
- ECO code
- C20
- Group
- Open Games (C)
- Plies
- 2
- Direct variations
- 19
- Total in subtree
- 1021
This overview is generated automatically from the opening's metadata. A more detailed, human-written description is on the way — and you can speed it up by suggesting one yourself.
Statistics from Lichess
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Source: Lichess Opening Explorer · cached
Description
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Variations (19)
- C23 Bishop's Opening
- C20 Bongcloud Attack
- C20 Center Game
- C20 English Opening: The Whale
- C30 King's Gambit
- C40 King's Knight Opening
- C20 Alapin Opening
- C20 King's Head Opening
- C20 Leonardis Variation
- C20 MacLeod Attack
- C20 Mengarini's Opening
- C20 Napoleon Attack
- C20 Tortoise Opening
- C20 Wayward Queen Attack
- C20 King's Pawn Opening
- C20 King's Pawn Opening: Speers
- C20 King's Pawn Opening: Van Hooydoon Gambit
- C20 Portuguese Opening
- C25 Vienna Game
Show all 1021 sub-variations (full subtree)
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