Tree path 5 levels King's Pawn Game › Center Game › Center Game Accepted › Center Game › Normal Variation
- Chess Codex
- King's Pawn Game C20
- Center Game C20
- Center Game Accepted C21
- Center Game C21
- Normal Variation C22 you are here
Center Game: Normal Variation
Overview
Center Game: Normal Variation is a variation within the Open Games family, indexed as ECO C22.
The Open Games group covers open games — classical 1.e4 e5 openings where both sides contest the centre directly with pawns.
It begins with 6 plies and takes 1. e4 e5 2. d4 exd4 3. Qxd4 Nc6 to reach the canonical position.
It is a variation of Center Game, which itself descends from the root opening King's Pawn Game.
It branches into 2 notable variations — Center Game: Hall Variation, Center Game: Paulsen Attack Variation.
Together the deeper variations number 6 across the full subtree.
Step through the moves on the interactive board below, review the live Lichess statistics, or play this position against Stockfish at one of six difficulty levels.
- ECO code
- C22
- Group
- Open Games (C)
- Plies
- 6
- Parent
- Center Game
- Direct variations
- 2
- Total in subtree
- 6
This overview is generated automatically from the opening's metadata. Know this line well? Write a description — submissions are reviewed before publishing.
Statistics from Lichess
5,436,725 games · White 49.0% / Draw 4.1% / Black 46.9%
| Moves | Games | W / D / B |
|---|---|---|
| Qe3 | 2,544,799 | |
| Qd1 | 1,593,888 | |
| Qa4 | 664,136 | |
| Qd3 | 228,461 | |
| Qc4 | 180,581 | |
| Qd5 | 85,600 | |
| Qc3 | 68,170 | |
| Qd2 | 50,171 |
Source: Lichess Opening Explorer · cached 2026-09-26 01:23:24
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