King's Knight Opening
Chess opening · ECO C40 · 3 half-moves
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3
The King's Knight Opening is reached after 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3. It is Black's move in the position shown.
It branches from the King's Pawn Game with 1… e5 2. Nf3.
How often it is played
The King's Knight Opening and its variations appeared in 15% of games — 452,563 of 3,000,000 rated games sampled from Lichess in September 2026. That makes it number 3 of the openings listed here.
Results
White won 51%, 3.9% 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 +0.48 — 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Sicilian Defense | 1. e4 c5 | 9.6% |
| French Defense | 1. e4 e6 | 6.4% |
| Scandinavian Defense | 1. e4 d5 | 6.1% |
Main continuations
| Variation | Moves | Share of games |
|---|---|---|
| King's Knight Opening: Normal Variation | 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 | 10% |
| 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% |
| Elephant Gambit | 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d5 | 0.34% |
| King's Pawn Game: McConnell Defense | 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Qf6 | 0.25% |
| King's Pawn Game: Damiano Defense | 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 f6 | 0.15% |
| Latvian Gambit | 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 f5 | 0.12% |
Check your own games
Paste a game, or share one straight from lichess or chess.com, and Chess Analyzer names the opening, marks where the game left known theory and grades every move after it.
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