Caissa Codex
C24

Bishop's Opening: Berlin Defense, Greco Gambit

Chess diagram: Bishop's Opening: Berlin Defense, Greco Gambit after 3. f4

Type a move and press Enter: e4, Nf3, O-O, or from and to squares like g1f3 (e7e8q to promote). The board is also played with the mouse.

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Statistics from Lichess

127,101 games: White 47.4% / Draw 3.2% / Black 49.4%

The moves played next. Pick one to see it on the board.
Next moveGamesWhite / Draw / BlackW / D / B
King's Gambit Accepted: Bishop's Gambit, Cozio Defense 39,34839K
33,47333K
20,64421K
12,69713K
11,39511K
6,5586,558
1,0681,068
969969

Rated Lichess games between players rated 1600 to 2500, from the Lichess opening explorer, updated Nov 3, 2026

Engine evaluation

−1.37 Black is better

Best play: 3... Nxe4 4. Nc3 Nxc3 5. dxc3 Nc6 6. Nf3 Qe7 7. Qe2 exf4 8. Bxf4

Stockfish 19, depth 30, after the line's last move. Scores are in pawns, from White's side.

Overview

Bishop's Opening: Berlin Defense, Greco Gambit (ECO C24, Open Games) is a gambit in the Bishop's Opening: Berlin Defense, reached after 1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 Nf6 3. f4 (3 moves).

In 127,101 rated Lichess games between players rated 1600 to 2500, White won 47.4%, Black 49.4% and 3.2% were drawn. Black's most played move here is 3…exf4, in 31% of those games.

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How to play against the Bishop's Opening: Berlin Defense, Greco Gambit

3…Nxe4 scores best for Black: 57.2%, with Black winning 55.7% and White 41.3% of 33K games. The most played answer, 3…exf4, scores lowest: 47.0% in 39K games. Stockfish's first choice is also 3…Nxe4.

Main answers: those played in at least 5% of these games. Score: Black's wins plus half the draws, in rated Lichess games between players rated 1600 to 2500. How to play against other popular openings

Other lines from the same position

Instead of 3. f4, the position after Bishop's Opening: Berlin Defense also goes on to:

Transpositions

This position is also reached from these lines, by another move order:

From here, a move transposes into another named line:

Cite this page

Caissa Codex. “Bishop's Opening: Berlin Defense, Greco Gambit (C24)”. Lichess data as of 3 Nov 2026. https://chesscodex.org/openings/bishops-opening-berlin-defense-greco-gambit

https://chesscodex.org/openings/bishops-opening-berlin-defense-greco-gambit