King's Gambit Accepted: Fischer Defense
The Fischer Defense is 1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Nf3 d6, a reply to the King's Gambit made famous by Bobby Fischer. Read the guide
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Statistics from Lichess
4,038,072 games: White 52.6% / Draw 3.7% / Black 43.7%
| Next move | Games | White / Draw / BlackW / D / B |
|---|---|---|
| 2,273,2462.3M | ||
| 1,591,0041.6M | ||
| 47,12547K | ||
| 33,62734K | ||
| 30,52531K | ||
| 27,19027K | ||
| 17,04117K | ||
| 7,5427,542 |
Rated Lichess games between players rated 1600 to 2500, from the Lichess opening explorer, updated Nov 8, 2026
Engine evaluation
−0.32 Black is slightly better
Best play: 4. Bc4 h6 5. h4 Nf6 6. Nc3 c6 7. d4 d5 8. exd5 cxd5
Stockfish 19, depth 30, after the line's last move. Scores are in pawns, from White's side.
By rating
The stronger the players, the better this line does for Black: Black scores 44% under 1400, 50% at 2200 and up and 58% in master games (wins plus half the draws).
| Players | Games | White / Draw / BlackW / D / B |
|---|---|---|
| Under 1400 | 955K | |
| 1400–1799 | 3.5M | |
| 1800–2199 | 1.9M | |
| 2200 and up | 64K | |
| Masters, over the board | 451 |
Master games
- Nepomniachtchi, I. – Alekseenko, K.
- Morozevich, A. – Kasparov, G.
- Vachier Lagrave, M. – Ipatov, A.
- Nihal, S. – Esipenko, A.
- Zvjaginsev, V. – Akopian, V.
Rated blitz, rapid and classical Lichess games by rating band, and over-the-board games of players rated 2200+ from the Lichess masters database, updated Sep 26, 2026
Description
The Fischer Defense is 1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Nf3 d6, a reply to the King's Gambit made famous by Bobby Fischer. The move 3...d6 keeps the white knight out of e5 and lets Black hold the extra pawn with ...g5 later. White almost always answers 4.d4 or 4.Bc4. Its ECO code is C34.
Origins
The move was known before, but it became a major variation only after Fischer advocated it in a 1961 article in the first issue of the American Chess Quarterly. In 1960 at Mar del Plata Fischer had lost to Boris Spassky, who played the Kieseritzky Gambit against him, and he left in tears and set to work on a new defence.
His article, "A Bust to the King's Gambit", claimed: "In my opinion the King's Gambit is busted. It loses by force." It ended with the famous line: "Of course White can always play differently, in which case he merely loses differently." Fischer never tested his analysis in a tournament game, as he never faced the gambit again. Later he played the King's Gambit himself and won all three of his tournament games with it, but with the Bishop's Gambit, 3.Bc4, not the 3.Nf3 line he had analysed.
The idea
Fischer called 3...d6 "a high-class waiting move". It lets Black support the pawn with ...g5 while avoiding the Kieseritzky Gambit, 3...g5 4.h4 g4 5.Ne5, where the knight lands on e5.
Main lines
- 4.d4 is the most common reply. It threatens to win back the pawn with Bxf4, so Black plays 4...g5, the only accurate move. After 5.h4 g4 the knight must move: Fischer analysed 6.Ng5 f6 7.Nh3 gxh3 8.Qh5+ Kd7 9.Bxf4 Qe8 10.Qf3 Kd8 as winning easily for Black. The more common 6.Ng1 has done well for White after 6...Bh6 7.Nc3 c6 8.Nge2 Qf6 9.g3, and Nigel Short beat Vladimir Akopian in this line in Madrid 1997. A more modern idea is 5.Nc3, planning g3 to undermine Black's kingside pawns.
- 4.Bc4 has become slightly better regarded than 4.d4. The usual answer is 4...h6, Fischer's recommendation. Together, ...d6 and ...h6 keep the knight on f3 out of both e5 and g5. The modern line 5.h4 Nf6 6.Nc3 stops ...g5 and is well regarded for White. After 5.d4 g5 the game Spassky–Karpov, Hamburg 1982, a one-hour game for West German television, was won by Spassky on time in an ending of queen and knight against queen.
The numbers
On Lichess White wins 52.6% of the 4 million games and Black 43.7%. Below 1800 White wins 54.5–54.8%, but the gap closes with rating: 51.2% against 44.9% between 1800 and 2199, and from 2200 up Black is ahead, 48.1% against 47.2%. In 451 master games over the board Black won 40.8%, White 25.5%, and 33.7% were drawn.
Suggest an improvement or report a mistake
How to play against the King's Gambit Accepted: Fischer Defense
4. d4 scores best for White: 55.9%, with White winning 54.0% and Black 42.3% of 1.6M games. The most played answer, 4. Bc4, scores lowest: 53.6% in 2.3M games. Stockfish's first choice is 4. Bc4.
Main answers: those played in at least 5% of these games. Score: White's wins plus half the draws, in rated Lichess games between players rated 1600 to 2500. How to play against other popular openings
Popularity by year
The King's Gambit Accepted: Fischer Defense has lost ground since 2016: 0.14% of Lichess games in 2025, down from 0.22%.
Numbers by year
| Year | Share of games | Games |
|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 0.22% | 77,445 |
| 2017 | 0.2% | 111,979 |
| 2018 | 0.18% | 142,456 |
| 2019 | 0.17% | 216,118 |
| 2020 | 0.16% | 465,193 |
| 2021 | 0.16% | 612,230 |
| 2022 | 0.16% | 588,747 |
| 2023 | 0.15% | 581,549 |
| 2024 | 0.15% | 535,653 |
| 2025 | 0.14% | 486,415 |
| 2026 (Jan–Apr) | 0.13% | 146,539 |
Share of rated Lichess games between players rated 1600 to 2500 (blitz, rapid and classical) that reach this position, by year; 2026: January to April. Which openings are rising and falling
Variations (3)
Sources
- History and theory: adapted from the Wikipedia article King's Gambit, Fischer Defense, version of 2 October 2026, under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Results: Lichess opening explorer, figures collected from September to November 2026.
Cite this page
Caissa Codex. “King's Gambit Accepted: Fischer Defense (C34)”. Lichess data as of 8 Nov 2026. https://chesscodex.org/openings/kings-gambit-accepted-fischer-defense