Four Knights Game
Moves
Black scores
47.9%
Loses moreEveryone
Loses moreEvenWins more
45.7% won4.4% drawn49.9% lost
Theory 47.3% · Stockfish +0.3
Every level and clock · 41M games
1
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3
4
5
6
7
h8
g
f
e
d
c
b
a
3...Nf6
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Win rate by rating
Black’s score falls away as the rating rises.
| Rating | Score against even | Score | Won | Games |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 49.1% | 46.8% | 5.4M | ||
| 47.7% | 45.7% | 7.0M | ||
| 47.7% | 45.7% | 7.8M | ||
| 48.1% | 46.1% | 7.5M | ||
| 47.7% | 45.5% | 5.9M | ||
| 47.8% | 45.4% | 3.9M | ||
| 47.6% | 44.9% | 2.0M | ||
| 46.4% | 43.0% | 1.0M | ||
| 44.9% | 39.1% | 250K |
Every clock · Tap a row to set your level.
What does White play next?
White's most played reply is 4.Bb5, the Spanish Variation.
Is the Four Knights Game good?
Not for Black, across every level and clock.
Everyone47.9
Stockfish47.3
Stockfish at depth 22 · +0.3 for White
Floor 47.9 is the worst score you would still get, 90% confident.
Among the families
36th of 65 families Black can choose
Where it wins · rating × clock
Best 54.5% · under 1000 ultrabulletWorst 43.3% · 2200–2499 classical
Faint, hatched: few games, never the best or worst. Tap a cell to set your level and clock.
Average game length
0204060This line 32All openings 34
More about this line
How do you score in your own openings?
Leaks reads your recent games and lists the openings you score worst in.
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More Four Knights Game lines
Most played first; each line counts its own games.
- Italian Variation48.5%3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Nc316M games
- Scotch Variation Accepted45.8%4.d4 exd45.4M games
- Spanish Variation, Classical Variation49.0%4.Bb5 Bc52.7M games
- Spanish Variation, Double Spanish47.8%4.Bb5 Bb41.4M games
- Spanish Variation, Ranken Variation43.6%4.Bb5 a6 5.Bxc61.0M games
- Italian Variation, Noa Gambit54.0%3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Nc3 Nxe4 5.Bxf7+666K games
All 34 Four Knights Game lines, ranked
34 variations · ranked by floor
Floor — the worst score you would still get, 90% confident.
1
Four Knights Game: Spanish Variation, Gunsberg Counterattack408 games
2
Four Knights Game: Italian Variation, Noa Gambit666K games
3
Four Knights Game: Spanish Variation, Rubinstein Variation, Marshall Variation5.8K games
Four Knights Game4.6M games
Four Knights Game: Spanish Variation, Rubinstein Variation Accepted289K games
Four Knights Game: Scotch Variation, Schmid Defense91K games
Four Knights Game: Glek System444K games
Four Knights Game: Spanish Variation, Classical Variation2.7M games
Four Knights Game: Scotch Variation, Krause Gambit, Leonhardt Defense4.7K games
Four Knights Game: Italian Variation16M games
Four Knights Game: Scotch Variation Accepted, Main Line170K games
Four Knights Game: Spanish Variation, Svenonius Variation2.7K games
Four Knights Game: Spanish Variation, Symmetrical Variation, Metger Unpin5.7K games
Four Knights Game: Gunsberg Variation972K games
Four Knights Game: Spanish Variation, Rubinstein Variation373K games
Four Knights Game: Spanish Variation, Double Spanish1.4M games
Four Knights Game: Spanish Variation, Spielmann Variation1.9K games
Four Knights Game: Spanish Variation, Rubinstein Variation, Marshall Gambit2.2K games
Four Knights Game: Spanish Variation3.0M games
Four Knights Game: Spanish Variation, Rubinstein Variation, Henneberger Variation73K games
Four Knights Game: Spanish Variation, Nimzowitsch Variation30K games
Four Knights Game: Spanish Variation, Janowski Variation2.6K games
Four Knights Game: Scotch Variation Accepted5.4M games
Four Knights Game: Halloween Gambit1.1M games
Four Knights Game: Scotch Variation, Belgrade Gambit182K games
Four Knights Game: Scotch Variation2.2M games
Four Knights Game: Spanish Variation, Symmetrical Variation52K games
Four Knights Game: Spanish Variation, Ranken Variation1.0M games
Four Knights Game: Spanish Variation, Bardeleben Variation233 games
Four Knights Game: Halloween Gambit, Plasma Variation1.2K games
Four Knights Game: Scotch Variation, Krause Gambit44K games
Four Knights Game: Spanish Variation, Symmetrical Variation, Tarrasch Variation1.0K games
Four Knights Game: Scotch Variation, Oxford Gambit56K games
Four Knights Game: Scotch Variation, Belgrade Gambit, Modern Defense21K games
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Methodology
Across every level and clock, the Four Knights Game family scores 47.9% for Black, from 41M rated Lichess games across 34 variations, and the low and high ends of its range both round to that same figure at this precision. Win rate, draw rate and loss rate come from games played September 2023 to August 2026.
How the figures are made
- Whose games these are
- 41M rated games played on Lichess (2023-09 to 2026-08). The games are Lichess’s and free for anyone to use. What is ours is the reading of them. Last rebuilt September 2026.
- Which games we count
- Rated games only — nothing casual.
- Both players within 200 rating points of each other. A mismatch tells you about the gap, not about the opening.
- At least 2 moves played.
- A game is filed under White’s rating.
- Why every number comes with a range
- A number off a few hundred games is a guess. The same number off millions is a fact. The range is what tells them apart, and it is what the lists rank on — so an opening cannot reach the top on a lucky run of forty games. The more games behind a figure, the narrower its range.
- What the Floor and Edge at worst are
- The Floor is the worst score you would still get, 90% confident: the low end of a figure’s range, not its average. Edge at worst is how far wins run ahead of losses, 90% confident, so above zero, that side wins more than it loses even on a bad day. Each is stated for the rating and clock shown, over the games that reached the position. They are on different scales: a score sits at 50 when the sides are level, an edge at zero.
- How much we need before we say anything
- An opening page needs 100 games. A figure on it needs 100 games at its rating and clock: short of that the answer reads a wider scope and says so, a table row shows only its count, and a map cell shows a dash. Under 1.0K games a figure is drawn faint, and never leads a list or counts as the best or worst place the line wins. The chaos and trap lists need 500 games overall and 250 games at one rating or clock.