King's Indian Defense

Black lets White build a big centre and attacks it later. It was the weapon of David Bronstein, Bobby Fischer and Garry Kasparov, famous for its races between attacks on opposite wings.

It is reached after 5 moves: 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3.

Black is to move and has 23 legal moves. Over the next four moves — two for each side — the game can branch into 639,580 different games. Those games reach 214,945 different positions: most positions can be reached in more than one way, 3 on average.

The Lichess opening list names 148 further lines after this position, such as Grünfeld Defense (3... d5).

The same moves can be played in 6 different legal orders that all reach this position. For example 1. c4 Nf6 2. d4 g6 3. Nc3, which starts as the English Opening.