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The Cow

Two tiny pawn steps and two wandering knights: the meme setup Tyler1 took with him on his climb up the rating list.

Viral opening · as White

How it goes

  1. 1.e3 · The Cow starts quietly: one modest step with the e-pawn and no theory in sight.
  2. 1...e5 · Black happily takes the center with a full two-square step.
  3. 2.d3 · A second small step. Pawns side by side on d3 and e3 are the Cow's front legs.
  4. 2...d5 · Black grabs even more space, a normal answer to such a quiet start.
  5. 3.Ne2 · The king's knight goes to e2, not f3. It is on its way to g3.
  6. 3...Nf6 · Black develops the natural way and keeps an eye on e4.
  7. 4.Nd2 · The other knight copies the idea: d2 now, then on to b3.
  8. 4...Bd6 · The bishop finds a good diagonal pointing at White's kingside.
  9. 5.Ng3 · One knight arrives on g3, where it watches e4, f5 and h5.
  10. 5...O-O · Black tucks the king away, comfortable and with more space.
  11. 6.Nb3 · The whole Cow is on the board: knights on g3 and b3, pawns on d3 and e3. Now White fights for the center.

How to beat it

  1. 5...h5! · Kick the knight before the Cow is finished. The h-pawn marches at g3 and Black risks nothing.
  2. 6.h3 · A small pawn move, but it does nothing to stop the h-pawn kicking the knight.
  3. 6...h4 · The pawn hits g3, and the knight has to go back where it came from.
  4. 7.Ne2 · Back to e2 it goes. Black has gained space for free while White is still not developed.

The story

The Cow is the brainchild of WFM Anna Cramling. She wanted a setup anyone could pick up in a minute, with no theory to study, so she put her pawns on e3 and d3 and sent her knights out through e2 and d2 to g3 and b3. The name is a nod to Ferdinand, the peaceful bull of the film that Swedish television shows every Christmas, and it suits a calm setup that takes its time and rarely gets pushed around.

Enter Tyler1, the League of Legends streamer. He took up chess seriously in mid-2023, came across a short Cramling posted on 14 May 2023 while he was learning, and played the Cow in Chess.com's PogChamps 5, which put it in front of a huge new audience. He arrived at that event rated about 200. By April 2024 he had passed 1,800 in rapid, enough for the top 1 % of players on the site, and that May he touched 1,900.

Cramling reviewed his games on stream, said he had even improved her theory, and promised to challenge him to a match once he reached 2,000. By SuperPogChamps in December 2025, Chess.com noted he had come close to that mark. She even got Magnus Carlsen to try the Cow for one of her videos. It hands Black the center and costs time, but it is solid, simple and fun, which is the whole point.

Sources: Chess.com: The Cow · Dexerto: Tyler1 hits the top 1 % of chess players (April 2024) · Dexerto: Tyler1 challenged by the chess master behind his opening (May 2024) · Chess.com: Announcing SuperPogChamps 2025 · YouTube: I made Magnus Carlsen play the Cow Opening

Verdict

Meme opening · plodding, but hard to push over

Meme · Streamer favorite

More

Opening names and lines: Lichess chess-openings (CC0) · Not affiliated with Lichess.