The King's Knight Opening is a chess opening consisting of the moves: White's second move attacks the e-pawn.

Black usually defends this with 2...Nc6, which leads to several named openings.

Some moves from here include: Of the alternatives, 2...Nf6 (Petrov's Defense) is considered fully respectable and is common in grandmaster games.

These openings are generally considered to be less sound than those mentioned above.

These openings are all categorized in the ECO under code C40.