Anna Cramling’s opening repertoire tells you a lot about her: it’s classical and sensible, built on the systems two grandmaster parents grew up on — with one gloriously silly exception she made world-famous. This page walks through the openings she actually plays, plus the meme that put her on the chess-culture map.
A quick, honest note: Anna is a content creator as much as a competitor these days, and she’ll play all sorts of things for fun on stream — odd gambits, meme lines, viewer challenges. What follows is the core of what she trusts and teaches, not an exhaustive database of every move she’s ever tried.
As White: 1.d4 and classical systems
Anna leans toward Queen’s Pawn (1.d4) openings — the slower, structure-first world her mother, GM Pia Cramling, has taught for decades. From there she’s comfortable in Queen’s Gambit territory, where White stakes a claim in the center and plays for a small, lasting pull rather than an early knockout.
The appeal for Anna is obvious. These lines reward understanding over memorization — exactly what she’s good at and good at explaining. You don’t need a 20-move engine line to play a Queen’s Gambit well; you need to grasp the plans, the pawn breaks, and the typical middlegame ideas. That’s teaching gold, and it’s why so much of her instructional content lives in this kind of position.
Open, classical 1.e4 games
Anna is equally at home in open, classical 1.e4 e5 positions, especially the Italian Game — a family favorite. The Italian is the perfect Cramling opening: it develops naturally, aims a bishop at Black’s weak f7-square, and leads to rich middlegames without demanding heavy theory. Her mother has literally recorded teaching material on the slow Italian lines, and that DNA shows up in Anna’s own play.
She’s also fluent in London System-style setups — quiet, reliable, and easy to reach against almost anything. For a player who spends a lot of time in casual and teaching games, having a solid, repeatable system you can play “on autopilot” is a real practical advantage.
The Cow: her signature meme opening
And then there’s The Cow — the opening Anna will always be associated with. It’s a deliberately anti-theory meme system: you play 1.e3 and 2.d3, then send both knights out to the b3 and g3 “horns,” producing a funny, cow-shaped pawn-and-knight formation. (Black can mirror the whole thing.)
The point of the Cow is fun and simplicity: it’s easy to remember, sidesteps all your opponent’s opening prep, and gets you to a playable (if passive) position where you just play chess. Anna popularized it on her channels, and it snowballed into a genuine phenomenon — it showed up in celebrity chess events (PogChamps) and was even wheeled out against Anna by a grandmaster at a 2024 open. It’s a rare thing: a content creator adding a named idea to chess’s shared vocabulary.
To be clear, the Cow is a joke weapon, not a super-GM system — and Anna presents it exactly that way. It’s a brilliant piece of chess culture, not a shortcut to 2700.
How to read her repertoire
Put it together and the theme is consistency: classical center, healthy development, plans you can explain. Whether it’s a Queen’s Gambit, an Italian, or a London, Anna is choosing openings that reward understanding — which is both how she was raised on the game and what makes her such a good teacher. The Cow is the wink at the end: proof that the same person who plays sound, principled chess also knows how to make it laugh-out-loud fun.
Want to see these ideas in action? Head to Anna’s playing style for the thinking behind the moves, or her best games for the moments that made her famous.
FAQ
What openings does Anna Cramling play? Mostly classical, family-taught systems: Queen’s Pawn (1.d4) openings like the Queen’s Gambit, open 1.e4 e5 games such as the Italian, and solid London-style setups. Plus her signature meme, the Cow.
What is the Cow opening? A deliberately anti-theory meme system Anna popularized: pawns on d3 and e3, with the knights developed to the b3 and g3 “horns.” It’s simple, fun, and sidesteps opening theory — but it’s a joke weapon, not a serious elite opening.
Does Anna Cramling play the Italian Game? Yes — open, classical 1.e4 e5 positions like the Italian are very much in her wheelhouse, and they’re a family teaching staple thanks to her mother, GM Pia Cramling.
Is the Cow opening actually good? It’s fine for fun and for club-level play, and it does dodge your opponent’s preparation — but it’s passive and no serious player considers it a top opening. Anna presents it as a meme, and that’s exactly what it is.
Keep exploring
Back to the Anna Cramling profile · her best games · her playing style · her rating history · fun facts · or browse all chess players.
Written and fact-checked by the Chess Lab Academy Editorial Team · Facts verified against Wikipedia, the Chess.com opening database, and Chess.com, as of July 2026 · Last verified 2026-07-10 · How we verify content.