Tree path 3 levels Queen's Pawn Game › Indian Defense › Knights Variation
A46

Indian Defense: Knights Variation

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Overview

Indian Defense: Knights Variation is a variation within the Flank Openings family, indexed as ECO A46.

The Flank Openings group covers flank openings — systems that delay the central pawn break and instead develop pieces and pawns on the wings.

It begins with 3 plies and takes 1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 to reach the canonical position.

It is a variation of Indian Defense, which itself descends from the root opening Queen's Pawn Game.

It is the root of 12 named variations, with Döry Defense, East Indian Defense, Indian Defense: Czech-Indian, and others among the most studied.

Counted recursively, this branch covers 38 sub-variations at all depths.

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
A46
Group
Flank Openings (A)
Plies
3
Parent
Indian Defense
Direct variations
12
Total in subtree
38

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

40,426,804 games · White 48.8% / Draw 6.2% / Black 45.0%

MovesGamesW / D / B
g613,499,051
e610,536,977
d58,959,106
c53,126,175
d62,466,271
b6874,581
c6468,830
Nc6236,250

Source: Lichess Opening Explorer · cached 2026-09-26 00:51:08

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Variations (12)

Show all 38 sub-variations (full subtree)