Tree path 3 levels King's Pawn Game › Sicilian Defense › McDonnell Attack
- Chess Codex
- King's Pawn Game B00
- Sicilian Defense B20
- McDonnell Attack B21 you are here
Sicilian Defense: McDonnell Attack
Overview
Sicilian Defense: McDonnell Attack is a variation within the Semi-Open Games family, indexed as ECO B21.
The Semi-Open Games group covers semi-open games — replies to 1.e4 where Black declines the symmetrical 1…e5 in favour of an asymmetric pawn structure.
It begins with 3 plies and takes 1. e4 c5 2. f4 to reach the canonical position.
It is a variation of Sicilian Defense, which itself descends from the root opening King's Pawn Game.
It branches into 3 notable variations — Bird Opening: Dutch Variation, Batavo Gambit, Tal Gambit, Toilet Variation.
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
- B21
- Group
- Semi-Open Games (B)
- Plies
- 3
- Parent
- Sicilian Defense
- Direct variations
- 3
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
19,955,347 games · White 47.3% / Draw 3.9% / Black 48.8%
| Moves | Games | W / D / B |
|---|---|---|
| Nc6 | 7,906,918 | |
| d6 | 4,100,317 | |
| e6 | 3,379,061 | |
| d5 | 2,595,672 | |
| g6 | 935,724 | |
| e5 | 345,929 | |
| a6 | 291,213 | |
| Nf6 | 140,688 |
Source: Lichess Opening Explorer · cached 2026-09-26 00:53:18
Write a description
Markdown supported (headings ###, bold, lists, links).
Submissions are reviewed before publishing.