Bishop's Opening
Chess opening · ECO C23 · 3 half-moves
1. e4 e5 2. Bc4
The Bishop's Opening is reached after 1. e4 e5 2. Bc4. It is Black's move in the position shown.
It branches from the King's Pawn Game with 1… e5 2. Bc4.
How often it is played
The Bishop's Opening and its variations appeared in 1.7% of games — 49,573 of 3,000,000 rated games sampled from Lichess in September 2026. That makes it number 29 of the openings listed here.
Results
White won 52%, 3.4% were drawn and Black won 45%. These are games between players of every strength and time control, so they say how the opening does in practice rather than how sound it is.
What the engine thinks
Stockfish, at depth 18, evaluates the position at +0.03 — which is level. Positive numbers favour White; see reading the evaluation bar.
Similar openings
The most-played alternatives — what else could have been chosen around the move where this opening begins.
| Opening | Moves | Share of games |
|---|---|---|
| King's Knight Opening | 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 | 15% |
| Sicilian Defense | 1. e4 c5 | 9.6% |
| French Defense | 1. e4 e6 | 6.4% |
Main continuations
| Variation | Moves | Share of games |
|---|---|---|
| Bishop's Opening: Berlin Defense | 1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 Nf6 | 0.51% |
| Bishop's Opening: Boi Variation | 1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 Bc5 | 0.23% |
| Bishop's Opening: Philidor Counterattack | 1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 c6 | 0.05% |
| Bishop's Opening: Khan Gambit | 1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 d5 | 0.03% |
| Bishop's Opening: Calabrese Countergambit | 1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 f5 | 0.02% |
| Bishop's Opening: Anderssen Gambit | 1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 b5 3. Bxb5 c6 | 0.00% |
| King's Gambit Declined: Classical, Svenonius Variation | 1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 Nc6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. d3 Bc5 5. f4 d6 6. Nf3 Bg4 7. h3 Bxf3 8. Qxf3 exf4 | 0.00% |
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