Indian Defense: Knights Variation

Chess opening · ECO A46 · 3 half-moves

1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3

♜♞♝♛♚♝♜♟♟♟♟♟♟♟♟♞♟♞♟♟♟♟♟♟♟♜♞♝♛♚♝♜

The Indian Defense: Knights Variation is reached after 1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3. It is Black's move in the position shown.

It branches from the Indian Defense with 2. Nf3.

How often it is played

The Indian Defense: Knights Variation and its variations appeared in 1.1% of games — 32,716 of 3,000,000 rated games sampled from Lichess in September 2026. That makes it number 47 of the openings listed here.

Results

White won 49%, 4.6% were drawn and Black won 47%. 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 +0.31 — a small edge for White. 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
Indian Defense: Normal Variation	`1. d4 Nf6 2. c4`	2.5%
Indian Defense: Accelerated London System	`1. d4 Nf6 2. Bf4`	0.54%
Queen's Gambit	`1. d4 d5 2. c4`	4.5%

Main continuations

Variation	Moves	Share of games
East Indian Defense	`1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 g6`	0.53%
Indian Defense: Wade-Tartakower Defense	`1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 d6`	0.12%
Indian Defense: London System	`1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 e6 3. Bf4`	0.09%
Yusupov-Rubinstein System	`1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 e6 3. e3`	0.09%
Indian Defense: Spielmann-Indian	`1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 c5`	0.06%
Torre Attack: Classical Defense	`1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 e6 3. Bg5`	0.05%
Queen's Pawn Game: Veresov Attack, Classical Defense	`1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 e6 3. Nc3 d5 4. Bg5`	0.04%
Pseudo Queen's Indian Defense	`1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 b6`	0.02%

Check your own games

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