King's English Variation, Nimzowitsch Variation

With 2. Nf3, White develops the king's knight and attacks the e5-pawn immediately, instead of choosing the more common 2. Nc3 or the fianchetto with 2. g3. The drawback is that the knight on f3 can be harassed by a pawn advance, so Black has to decide at once whether to defend e5 or push past it. The engine rates the position as balanced and gives 2...e4, 2...Nc6 and 2...d6 as the leading replies, the same three moves that dominate practice.

2...Nc6, the most frequent answer, protects the pawn and often transposes to Nc3 lines once White develops the queen's knight. 2...d6 also keeps the pawn guarded, with a more restrained setup. 2...e4 is the Nimzowitsch-Flohr Variation, a kind of reversed Alekhine's Defense in which the f3-knight is driven away. If Black later pushes ...d5 to support the advanced pawn, White can capture with cxd5. White scores slightly better overall, about 51% wins against 45% for Black, and draws are rare.