Bongcloud Attack
The Bongcloud Attack is 1.e4 e5 2.Ke2, a joke opening known from internet chess humour. Read the guide
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Statistics from Lichess
49,385 games: White 37.0% / Draw 5.2% / Black 57.7%
| Next move | Games | White / Draw / BlackW / D / B |
|---|---|---|
| 16,68317K | ||
| 11,38211K | ||
| 6,0686,068 | ||
| 5,5345,534 | ||
| 3,3583,358 | ||
| 2,3992,399 | ||
| 901901 | ||
| 820820 |
Rated Lichess games between players rated 1600 to 2500, from the Lichess opening explorer, updated Oct 30, 2026
Engine evaluation
−1.98 Black is clearly better
Best play: 2... Nf6 3. Nc3 d5 4. exd5 Bc5 5. Ke1 O-O 6. d3 Nxd5 7. Nge2
Stockfish 19, depth 30, after the line's last move. Scores are in pawns, from White's side.
Description
The Bongcloud Attack is 1.e4 e5 2.Ke2, a joke opening known from internet chess humour. It breaks every normal principle of opening play: White gives up castling, blocks both the queen and the light-squared bishop, exposes the king, and neither develops a piece nor fights for the centre. The name is also used for other openings in which a player moves the king on move two.
Origins
The name is thought to come either from a Chess.com user "Lenny_Bongcloud", who played it with little success, or from a bong, implying that one would have to be intoxicated to see the opening as a serious strategy. Andrew Fabbro's joke manual Winning with the Bongcloud spread it further.
At the top level
Hikaru Nakamura has played it in online blitz. He streamed himself playing it on a new Chess.com account and reached a 3000 rating. In the 2018 Speed Chess Championship he played it three times against Levon Aronian, winning one game and losing two, and in 2019 he beat Vladimir Dobrov and Wesley So with it. In September 2020 he won with it against Jeffery Xiong in the St. Louis Rapid and Blitz, played on Lichess.
On 15 March 2021 Magnus Carlsen opened with the Bongcloud against Nakamura at the Magnus Carlsen Invitational, and Nakamura copied it with 2...Ke7, the "Double Bongcloud". Both players had already qualified for the knockout stage, and they drew by repetition, shuffling their kings back and forth.
The first use in a FIDE-rated game between top grandmasters came at the Chess.com Global Championship finals in November 2022, an in-person rapid event. Trailing 3–0 against Nakamura, Jan-Krzysztof Duda played 1.e3 and 2.Ke2, and lost.
Why play it
There is no chess reason. The only argument is psychological: after Carlsen beat Wesley So in a 2020 blitz game that opened 1.f3 and 2.Kf2, another version of the Bongcloud, So said that losing after such an opening had a crushing effect.
The numbers
On Lichess Black wins 57.7% of the 49,385 games and White 37.0%, with 5.2% draws.
Suggest an improvement or report a mistake
How to play against the Bongcloud Attack
2…Bc5 scores best for Black: 62.1%, with Black winning 60.2% and White 36.0% of 3,358 games. The most played, 2…Nc6, scores 62.0% in 17K games, and 2…d6 scores lowest: 55.9%. Stockfish's first choice is 2…Nf6.
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
Sources
- History and theory: adapted from the Wikipedia article Bongcloud Attack, version of 26 August 2026, under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Results: Lichess opening explorer, figures collected from September to November 2026.
Cite this page
Caissa Codex. “Bongcloud Attack (C20)”. Lichess data as of 30 Oct 2026. https://chesscodex.org/openings/bongcloud-attack