Owen Defense

Named after the 19th-century English player John Owen. Black fianchettoes the queen’s bishop at once with 1...b6.

It is reached after 2 moves: 1. e4 b6.

White is to move and has 30 legal moves. Over the next four moves — two for each side — the game can branch into 430,756 different games. Those games reach 150,041 different positions: most positions can be reached in more than one way, 2.9 on average.

The Lichess opening list names 6 further lines after this position, such as Guatemala Defense (2. d4 Ba6) and Naselwaus Gambit (2. d4 Bb7 3. Bg5).