Openings · C47–C49

Four Knights Game

Both sides develop both knights and nothing is resolved — the most symmetrical position in serious chess, and quietly full of traps.

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6played as White

The idea

Four developing moves and no commitments. White's real try is 4.Bb5, the Spanish Four Knights, where the pin on c6 asks the same question the Ruy López asks; 4.d4, the Scotch Four Knights, opens the centre while everything is developed.

The reputation for drawishness belongs to master play. Below that it is a fighting opening, because symmetrical positions punish the first player to copy one move too many.

Practise the line

You play White; the other side answers on its own. Nothing here is saved or graded.

Your move 1 of 30/3

1.e4e5
2.Nf3Nc6
3.Nc3Nf6

Your move. Drag a piece, or tap it and then its square.

Common mistakes

Three that come up again and again below master level. Each is ordinary opening theory — a named trap, or the error every coach corrects — not a statistic, and not drawn from anybody's games.

The Halloween Gambit

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Nxe5 Nxe5 5.d4 Ng6

The mistake: Sacrificing a knight on e5 to chase Black's pieces backwards.
Why it costs: The pawns do come, and they do look frightening. But 5…Ng6 followed by …Bb4 and …d6 holds everything, and a piece is a piece: a prepared opponent is winning from move six.
Instead: 4.Bb5 or 4.d4. If you want a gambit in this structure, the Belgrade — 4.d4 exd4 5.Nd5 — costs only a pawn and has an actual point.

Walking into the fork trick

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bc4 Nxe4 5.Nxe4 d5

The mistake: Developing with 4.Bc4 while the knight sits on c3.
Why it costs: 4…Nxe4 5.Nxe4 d5 forks bishop and knight; Black regains the piece with a pawn on d5 and easy equality. The trick works whenever a bishop on c4 and a knight on c3 are both loose at the same time.
Instead: 4.Bb5, which pins the defender of e5 and makes …Nxe4 cost a piece — the reason the Spanish set-up is the main line here.

Taking the Rubinstein bait

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bb5 Nd4 5.Nxe5 Qe7

The mistake: Answering the Rubinstein Countergambit 4…Nd4 by winning the e5 pawn.
Why it costs: 5…Qe7 attacks the knight on e5 and the pawn on e4 behind it, and once the knight moves …Nxb5 collects the bishop. White ends up material down for nothing at all.
Instead: 5.Nxd4 exd4 6.e5 dxc3 7.exf6 Qxf6 8.dxc3, which is level and known, or 5.Ba4 keeping the pin and the tension.

Try it on one of your own

The board above is for the line itself; this is for a game you played. Paste a game in this opening, or pull one from chess.com, and every move is graded against what the engine would have played. Open the board, read how the grading works, or go back to the other openings.