E60

Indian Defense: West Indian Defense

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Overview

Indian Defense: West Indian Defense is one of the foundational chess openings, sitting at the root of an entire branch of theory under ECO code Indian Defenses in the E60 group.

The Indian Defenses group covers Indian defences — hypermodern lines where Black challenges the centre with pieces rather than pawns.

Play reaches this position via 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6, after 4 plies of opening development.

It is the root of 8 named variations, with Indian Defense: Anti-Grünfeld, Advance Variation, Indian Defense: Anti-Grünfeld, Alekhine Variation, Indian Defense: Anti-Grünfeld, Basman-Williams Attack, and others among the most studied.

This is a deep theory tree with 123 total sub-variations across all depths — one of the larger branches in chess theory.

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: E60
Group: Indian Defenses (E)
Plies: 4
Direct variations: 8
Total in subtree: 123

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Statistics from Lichess

26,903,007 games · White 47.6% / Draw 5.6% / Black 46.8%

Moves	Games	W / D / B
Nc3	21,582,569
Nf3	2,714,039
g3	726,610
e3	628,794
f3	360,021
Bg5	337,962
Bf4	169,527
h4	74,032

Source: Lichess Opening Explorer · cached 2026-09-26 01:03:39

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Variations (8)

Show all 123 sub-variations (full subtree)

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