King's Knight Opening: Normal Variation
Chess opening · ECO C44 · 4 half-moves
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6
The King's Knight Opening: Normal Variation is reached after 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6. It is White's move in the position shown.
It branches from the King's Knight Opening with 2… Nc6.
How often it is played
The King's Knight Opening: Normal Variation and its variations appeared in 10% of games — 307,679 of 3,000,000 rated games sampled from Lichess in September 2026. That makes it number 4 of the openings listed here.
Results
White won 51%, 4.0% were drawn and Black won 46%. 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 +0.49 — 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Philidor Defense | 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6 | 2.1% |
| Petrov's Defense | 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 | 1.3% |
| King's Pawn Game: Busch-Gass Gambit | 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Bc5 | 0.39% |
Main continuations
| Variation | Moves | Share of games |
|---|---|---|
| Italian Game | 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 | 4.6% |
| Scotch Game | 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 | 2.0% |
| Ruy Lopez | 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 | 1.7% |
| Three Knights Opening | 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 | 1.3% |
| Ponziani Opening | 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. c3 | 0.37% |
| King's Pawn Game: Tayler Opening | 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Be2 | 0.04% |
| King's Knight Opening: Konstantinopolsky | 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. g3 | 0.03% |
| King's Pawn Game: Dresden Opening | 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. c4 | 0.01% |
Check your own games
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