King's Pawn Game: Damiano Defense
The Damiano Defense is 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 f6, one of the oldest chess openings, with games going back to the 16th century. Read the guide
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Statistics from Lichess
949,524 games: White 62.6% / Draw 3.5% / Black 34.0%
| Next move | Games | White / Draw / BlackW / D / B |
|---|---|---|
| 349,319349K | ||
| 235,314235K | ||
| 181,336181K | ||
| 87,66388K | ||
| 29,74630K | ||
| 20,04120K | ||
| 11,28011K | ||
| 8,0208,020 |
Rated Lichess games between players rated 1600 to 2500, from the Lichess opening explorer, updated Oct 20, 2026
Engine evaluation
+2.42 White is clearly better
Best play: 3. Nxe5 Qe7 4. Nf3 d5 5. d3 Nc6 6. Nc3 Be6 7. Be3 dxe4
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 41% under 1400, 45% at 2200 and up (wins plus half the draws).
| Players | Games | White / Draw / BlackW / D / B |
|---|---|---|
| Under 1400 | 8.3M | |
| 1400–1799 | 2.4M | |
| 1800–2199 | 282K | |
| 2200 and up | 11K | |
| Masters, over the board | 5 |
Master games
- Sánchez Huerga, A. – Millstone, M.
- Demchenko, A. – Pravdiuk, V. P.
- Mihalko, J. – Kadas, G.
- Petrosian, D. G. – Abedi, A.
- Nordal, S. – Gräber, I.
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 27, 2026
Description
The Damiano Defense is 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 f6, one of the oldest chess openings, with games going back to the 16th century. It is a weak opening: White gets a large advantage with 3.Nxe5, and even simple development is enough for an edge, because 2...f6 takes the f6-square from the g8-knight and weakens Black's king. Its ECO code is C40.
Origins
The opening is named after the Portuguese chess author Pedro Damiano (1480–1544), even though he condemned it as weak, and the book may actually be the work of Francesc Vicent, which Damiano signed. In 1847 Howard Staunton noted that the move appears in Damiano's old work and that Lopez and later authors called it "Damiano's Gambit". His contemporary George Walker used the name "Damiano Gambit" instead for White's knight sacrifice 3.Nxe5.
Main lines
- 3.Nxe5 is the most forceful move. Taking the knight with 3...fxe5 loses to a king hunt: 4.Qh5+ Ke7 5.Qxe5+ Kf7 6.Bc4+ d5 7.Bxd5+ Kg6 8.h4 h5 9.Bxb7 Bd6 10.Qa5, and Black's best, 10...Nc6 11.Bxc6 Rb8, leaves White to play 12.Qxa7 with five extra pawns. 4...g6 loses to 5.Qxe5+, forking king and rook.
- The right answer to 3.Nxe5 is 3...Qe7. After 4.Nf3 Qxe4+ 5.Be2 Black has regained the pawn but has lost time, weakened the kingside, and will lose more time when White chases the queen. Modern Chess Openings gives 4...d5 5.d3 dxe4 6.dxe4, with a small advantage for White, as in Schiffers–Chigorin, St. Petersburg 1897.
- 3.d4 and 3.Bc4 are also strong. I. A. Horowitz wrote that after 3.Bc4 d6 4.d4 Nc6 5.c3 Black "chokes to death".
That Black can only regain the pawn with 3...Qe7 shows that 2...f6 does not really defend e5. Even a move like 2...a6 is less risky: after 3.Nxe5 Black can still win the pawn back with 3...Qe7 4.d4 d6 without having weakened the kingside or blocked the knight.
Who plays it
The Damiano is never seen in top-level play today. The strongest player to use it in serious competition was Mikhail Chigorin, against Schiffers at St. Petersburg 1897. Chigorin lost his queen on move 10, but Schiffers played so weakly that the game ended in a draw. Robert McGregor played it in a 1964 simultaneous exhibition against Bobby Fischer and also drew, although Fischer did not play the best moves.
The numbers
On Lichess White wins 62.6% of the 950,000 games and Black 34.0%. The gap is large at every rating below 2200: White wins 56.9% under 1400 and 62.9% between 1400 and 1799. From 2200 up it is 52.5% against 42.5%. There are too few master games over the board, 5, to say anything.
Suggest an improvement or report a mistake
How to play against the King's Pawn Game: Damiano Defense
3. Nxe5 scores best for White: 71.3%, with White winning 70.1% and Black 27.5% of 181K games. The most played, 3. Bc4, scores 63.2% in 349K games, and 3. Nc3 scores lowest: 61.4%. Stockfish's first choice is also 3. Nxe5.
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 Pawn Game: Damiano Defense is played less than half as often as in 2016: 0.03% of Lichess games in 2025, down from 0.085%.
Numbers by year
| Year | Share of games | Games |
|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 0.085% | 30,397 |
| 2017 | 0.047% | 25,592 |
| 2018 | 0.034% | 26,591 |
| 2019 | 0.033% | 41,357 |
| 2020 | 0.04% | 117,799 |
| 2021 | 0.045% | 176,009 |
| 2022 | 0.038% | 142,465 |
| 2023 | 0.033% | 124,252 |
| 2024 | 0.032% | 115,766 |
| 2025 | 0.03% | 102,481 |
| 2026 (Jan–Apr) | 0.028% | 30,694 |
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 (2)
Sources
- History and theory: adapted from the Wikipedia article Damiano Defence, version of 28 August 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 Pawn Game: Damiano Defense (C40)”. Lichess data as of 20 Oct 2026. https://chesscodex.org/openings/kings-pawn-game-damiano-defense