The Queen's Gambit Declined (or QGD) is a
chess opening
The opening is the initial stage of a chess game. It usually consists of established Chess_theory#Opening_theory, theory. The other phases are the chess middlegame, middlegame and the chess endgame, endgame. Many opening sequences, known as ''op ...
in which Black declines a pawn offered by White in the
Queen's Gambit
The Queen's Gambit is the chess opening that starts with the moves:
:1. d4 d5
:2. c4
It is one of the oldest openings and is still commonly played today. It is traditionally described as a '' gambit'' because White appears to sacrifice the ...
:
:1.
d4 d5
:2.
c4 e6
This is known as the ''Orthodox Line'' of the Queen's Gambit Declined. When the "Queen's Gambit Declined" is mentioned, it is usually assumed to be referring to the Orthodox Line; see "
Other lines" below.
The Orthodox Line can be reached by a number of different , such as 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5; 1.d4 e6 2.c4 d5; 1.c4 e6 2.Nc3 d5 3.d4; 1.Nf3 d5 2.c4 e6 3.d4; and so on.
General concepts
Playing 2...e6 releases Black's , while obstructing Black's . By declining White's temporary
pawn sacrifice
Sacrifice is an act or offering made to a deity. A sacrifice can serve as propitiation, or a sacrifice can be an offering of praise and thanksgiving.
Evidence of ritual animal sacrifice has been seen at least since ancient Hebrews and Gree ...
, Black erects a solid position; the pawns on d5 and e6 give Black a foothold in the . The Queen's Gambit Declined has the reputation of being one of Black's most reliable defenses to 1.d4. In this situation, White will try to exploit the passivity of Black's light-squared bishop, and Black will try to release it, trade it, or prove that, while passive, the bishop has a useful defensive role.
An eventual ...dxc4 by Black will surrender the center to White, and Black will usually not do this unless Black can extract a concession, usually in the form of gaining a , by capturing on c4 only after White has played Bd3 first. In the Orthodox Line, the fight for the tempo revolves around White's efforts to play all other useful developing moves prior to playing Bd3. Black will often aim for the pawn break ...c5 in this opening, which often leads to one or the other side accepting
isolated or
hanging pawns in exchange for dynamic
compensation.
Other lines
In its broadest sense, the Queen's Gambit Declined is any variation of the Queen's Gambit in which Black does not play ...dxc4. Variations other than the Orthodox Line have their own names and are usually treated separately.
*1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 and eventual ...c6 –
Semi-Slav Defense
*1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 –
Slav Defense
The Slav Defense is a chess opening that begins with the moves:
:1. d4 d5
:2. c4 c6
The Slav is one of the primary defenses to the Queen's Gambit. Although it was analyzed as early as 1590, it was not until the 1920s that it started to be ...
*1.d4 d5 2.c4 e5 –
Albin Countergambit
The Albin Countergambit is a chess opening that begins with the moves:
:1. d4 d5
:2. c4 e5
and the usual continuation is:
:3. dxe5 d4
The opening is a gambit and an uncommon response to the Queen's Gambit. In exchange for the sacrificed ...
*1.d4 d5 2.c4 Nc6 –
Chigorin Defense
The Chigorin Defense is a chess opening named for 19th-century Russian master Mikhail Chigorin. An uncommonly played defense to the Queen's Gambit, it begins with the following moves:
:1. d4 d5
:2. c4 Nc6
The Chigorin Defense violates seve ...
*1.d4 d5 2.c4 Bf5 –
Baltic Defense
*1.d4 d5 2.c4 c5 –
Symmetrical Defense (or Austrian Defense)
*1.d4 d5 2.c4 Nf6 –
Marshall Defense
Of the 34 games played in the
1927 World Championship between
Alexander Alekhine
Alexander Aleksandrovich Alekhine. He disliked when Russians sometimes pronounced the of as , , which he regarded as a Yiddish distortion of his name, and insisted that the correct Russian pronunciation was . (March 24, 1946) was a Russian ...
and
José Raúl Capablanca
José Raúl Capablanca y Graupera (19 November 1888 – 8 March 1942) was a Cuban chess player who was the third World Chess Championship, world chess champion from 1921 to 1927. A chess prodigy, he was widely renowned for his exceptional Chess ...
, all except the first and third began with the Queen's Gambit Declined.
Black avoids 3...Nf6
After
1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 (3.Nf3 is a main alternative), Black's main move is 3...Nf6. Other options are:
*3...c5 (the
Tarrasch Defense), if Black is willing to accept an .
*3...Be7 (the
Alatortsev Variation). At top level, this has recently been played much more often than Nf6. Sometimes, this transposes to positions arising from 3...Nf6, and has the advantage, from Black's standpoint, of avoiding the insidious pressure of the main lines in the Exchange Variation arising after 3...Nf6 4.cxd5 exd5 5.Bg5. In many cases, the game will simply transpose into the main lines after 4.Nf3 Nf6 5.Bg5, or, White can now play 4.cxd5 exd5 5.Bf4 c6 6.e3, when 6...Bf5 7.g4 became a topical line after its adoption by
Mikhail Botvinnik
Mikhail Moiseyevich Botvinnik (; ; – May 5, 1995) was a Soviet and Russian chess grandmaster who held five world titles in three different reigns. The sixth World Chess Champion, he also worked as an electrical engineer and computer sci ...
in his 1963 title match with
Tigran Petrosian
Tigran Vardani Petrosian (; ; 17 June 1929 – 13 August 1984) was a Soviet-Armenian chess grandmaster and the ninth World Chess Champion from 1963 to 1969. He was nicknamed "Iron Tigran" due to his almost-impenetrable defensive playing s ...
. 6.Qc2 is also popular. These exchange lines are more popular than transposing at top level.
*3...c6, usually signalling Black's intention to enter the
Noteboom Variation Noteboom, Notenboom and Nooteboom are Dutch surname
Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
** Dutch people as an ethnic group ()
** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citize ...
after 4.Nf3 dxc4, or the
Semi-Slav after 4...Nf6. White has alternatives to 4.Nf3 such as the
Marshall Gambit 4.e4; or 4.e3 which may lead to the
Stonewall Dutch after ...f5 or transpose to the Semi-Slav.
*3...Bb4 (the Accelerated Ragozin) intends to transpose to the
Ragozin Variation, although White has various options to avoid this transposition. For instance, one drawback with this move is that after the moves 4.a3 Bxc3+ 5.bxc3 Nf6 6.e3 it allows White to achieve the
pawn structure
In a game of chess, the pawn structure (sometimes known as the pawn skeleton) is the configuration of pawn (chess), pawns on the chessboard. Because pawns are the least mobile of the chess pieces, the pawn structure is relatively static and thus ...
seen in the game
Botvinnik–Capablanca, AVRO 1938, which is often considered somewhat advantageous for White.
*3...a6 (the
Janowski Variation), which gained some interest in 2021 after being adopted by World Champion Magnus Carlsen. The move threatens ...dxc4 followed by ...b5, attempting to hold on to the pawn. For this reason, White usually plays cxd5 first.
Black plays 3...Nf6
Lines beginning with the moves
1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 are covered by ''
ECO'' codes D35–D69. These are old lines that can
transpose
In linear algebra, the transpose of a Matrix (mathematics), matrix is an operator which flips a matrix over its diagonal;
that is, it switches the row and column indices of the matrix by producing another matrix, often denoted by (among other ...
into many other
queen pawn openings. White has several ways of dealing with Black's setup:
QGD Main Variations: 4.Bg5 Be7 5.Nf3
*Tartakower Variation or Tartakower–Makogonov–Bondarevsky System (TMB system): 5...h6 6.Bh4 0-0 7.e3 b6, is one of the most solid continuations for Black.
*Anti-Tartakower–Makogonov–Bondarevsky (Anti-TMB): 5...h6 6.Bxf6 Bxf6 this line was extensively tested in the Kasparov–Karpov matches in 1980s. To this day Black has no problems in this line despite being tested at the highest levels. More recently,
Boris Gelfand
Boris Abramovich Gelfand (; born 24 June 1968) is a Belarusian-Israeli chess player.
A six-time World Championship candidate (1991, 1994–95, 2002, 2007, 2011, 2013), he won the Chess World Cup 2009 and the 2011 Candidates Tournament, mak ...
defended the Black side of this variation in the 2011 candidates matches which eventually he went on to win. For example, in the third round of the final candidate match, he forced White to accept a
draw in 14 moves with a very strong novelty.
*Lasker Variation: 5...0-0 6.e3 h6 (Neo-orthodox Variation) 7.Bh4 Ne4 (Lasker Variation) 8.Bxe7 Qxe7, is also a solid line, often leading to the exchange of two sets of minor pieces. It was this line that
Viswanathan Anand chose in the final game of the
World Chess Championship 2010 in order to defeat
Veselin Topalov
Veselin Aleksandrov Topalov (pronounced ; ; born 15 March 1975) is a Bulgarian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster and former FIDE World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion.
Topalov became FIDE World Chess Champion by winning the FIDE ...
and retain the world championship.
*Classical Variation (or Orthodox defence): 5...0-0 6.e3 Nbd7 7.Rc1 c6 and now White has two main moves: 8.Bd3 and 8.Qc2. After 8.Bd3 dxc4 9.Bxc4 Black has surrendered the center and stands somewhat cramped, but has succeeded in making White lose a tempo by playing Bd3 before Bxc4. White will try to use his advantage in space to attack, whereas Black will try to keep White at bay while striking back at the center. Capablanca's main idea here was the freeing maneuver 9...Nd5 10.Bxe7 Qxe7 11.0-0 Nxc3 12.Rxc3 e5 13.dxe5 Nxe5 14.Nxe5 Qxe5 15.f4 Qe7, which has led to a number of exchanges in the center, though Black must exercise care even in the wake of this simplification. This line was once so frequently played that it has a separate code (D69) in ''ECO'', though the lack of active counter play for Black has made the main line of the Orthodox a backwater in modern practice.
Cambridge Springs Defense: 4.Bg5 Nbd7
The Cambridge Springs Defense was introduced more than a century ago, and is still played. (1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6) 4.Bg5 Nbd7 (setting up the
Elephant Trap
In chess, the Elephant Trap is a faulty attempt by White to win a pawn in a popular variation of the Queen's Gambit Declined.
The earliest recorded occurrence of the trap seems to be the game Karl Mayet– Daniel Harrwitz, Berlin 1848.< ...
) 5.e3 c6 6.Nf3 Qa5, now Black intends ...Bb4 and possibly ...Ne4, with pressure along the a5–e1 diagonal. This Black defense is popular among amateurs because there are several traps White can fall into, for example 7.Nd2 (one of the main lines, countering Black's pressure along the diagonal) 7...Bb4 8.Qc2 0-0 and here 9.Bd3 loses since 9...dxc4 (threatening ...Qxg5) 10.Bxf6 cxd3! (a
zwischenzug) 11.Qxd3 Nxf6 wins a piece for Black.
Exchange Variation: 4.cxd5 exd5
After 4.cxd5 exd5 5.Bg5 c6 6.Qc2 White has a pawn majority in the center, Black has a pawn majority on the . This pawn structure gives White the opportunity to either advance his pawns in the center by means of Nge2, f2–f3, followed by e2–e4, or play for a by means of the plan Rb1, followed by b2–b4–b5, then bxc6 in order to create a weak pawn at c6. While Black can play ...cxb5, or recapture on c6 with a piece, each of these possibilities is even less desirable than the
backward pawn
In chess, a backward pawn is a pawn that is behind all pawns of the same color on the adjacent and cannot be safely advanced. In the diagram, the black pawn on the c6-square is backward.
Disadvantages
Backward pawns are usually a positional ...
in the open file. For Black, exchanging at d5 has released his light-squared bishop and opened the e-file, giving him the use of e4 as a springboard for central and play. While chances are balanced, Black is usually more or less forced to use his superior activity to launch a piece attack on White's
king
King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...
, as the long-term chances in the QGD Exchange structure favor White. The following games are model games for White:
*Central pawn advance: Carlsen–Jakovenko, Nanjing 2009
*Minority attack: Evans–Opsahl, Dubrovnik 1950
Three Knights Variation: 4.Nf3
The Three Knights Variation of the QGD is usually reached from the move order 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Nc3, played to avoid the
Nimzo-Indian Defense
The Nimzo-Indian Defence is a chess opening characterised by the moves:
:1. b:Chess Opening Theory/1. d4, d4 b:Chess Opening Theory/1. d4/1...Nf6, Nf6
:2. b:Chess Opening Theory/1. d4/1...Nf6/2. c4, c4 b:Chess Opening Theory/1. d4/1...Nf6/2. c4/2 ...
(from White's point of view) and the
Exchange Variation of the QGD (from Black's point of view). Black has a few options in response to the Three Knights Variation.
Vienna Variation: 4...dxc4
The Vienna Variation occurs after Black plays 4...dxc4 in the Three Knights Variation. The main line of the Vienna continues as 5.e4 Bb4 6.Bg5. White's pawns or pieces occupy the central squares in exchange for long-term pawn structure weaknesses. An instance of Vienna Variation played at the highest level was Fine–Euwe, AVRO 1938. The Quiet Variation of the Vienna Variation occurs after 5.e3.
Semi-Tarrasch Defense: 4...c5
The Semi-Tarrasch Defense occurs after Black plays 4...c5 in the Three Knights Variation.
An important line in this variation is the Endgame Line where the game continues: 5.cxd5 cxd4 6.Qxd4 exd5 7.e4 dxe4 8.Qxd8+ Kxd8 where the queens get traded off in a similar fashion to the Endgame in the
Berlin Defense, resulting in a drawish position. This line has been played by top grandmasters such as
Wesley So,
Anish Giri
Anish Kumar Giri (; ; born 28 June 1994) is a Dutch chess grandmaster. A chess prodigy
Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves no hidden information and no elements of chance. It is played on ...
, and
Magnus Carlsen
Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen (born 30 November 1990) is a Norwegian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster. Carlsen is a five-time World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion, five-time World Rapid Chess Championship, World Rapid Chess Champio ...
aiming for a draw. There is also the Exchange Variation where the game continues 5.cxd5 Nxd5 6.e4 Nxc3 7.bxc3 cxd4 8.cxd4, which has been used by the likes of
Ding Liren,
Anish Giri
Anish Kumar Giri (; ; born 28 June 1994) is a Dutch chess grandmaster. A chess prodigy
Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves no hidden information and no elements of chance. It is played on ...
,
Vladimir Kramnik
Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik (; born 25 June 1975) is a Russian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster. He was the World Chess Champion#Split title (1993–2006), Classical World Chess Champion from 2000 to 2006, and the 14th undisputed World Ch ...
, and
Magnus Carlsen
Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen (born 30 November 1990) is a Norwegian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster. Carlsen is a five-time World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion, five-time World Rapid Chess Championship, World Rapid Chess Champio ...
.
Ragozin Variation: 4...Bb4
The Ragozin Variation (''ECO'' code D37–D39) occurs after Black plays 4...Bb4 in the Three Knights Variation. The Alekhine Variation of the Ragozin Variation occurs with 5.Qa4 Nc6 6.e3 0-0 7.Qc2. A transposition into the
Vienna Variation of the QGD occurs with 5.Bg5 dxc4 6.e4. An alternate line commonly played is 5.cxd5 exd5 6.Bg5 h6 7.Bh4 to avoid transposing into the Vienna.
Semi-Slav Defense: 4...c6
The
Semi-Slav Defense occurs after Black plays 4...c6 in the Three Knights Variation.
Transposition into Main Variations: 4...Be7 5.Bg5
A transposition into the
Main Variations of the Queen's Gambit Declined occurs after Black plays 4...Be7 5.Bg5 in the Three Knights Variation.
Harrwitz Attack 4...Be7 5.Bf4
This variation is also a popular line. Placing the bishop on g5 allows Black to exchange more freely with moves like Nf6–e4, as seen in the Lasker Defense. The move Bf4 is designed to restrict Black's opportunities in this way, as well as reducing opportunities to gain the .
Play usually continues with 5...0-0 6.e3 c5 7.dxc5 Bxc5.
Peter Leko, usually an e4 player, used this variation as White to beat
Vladimir Kramnik
Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik (; born 25 June 1975) is a Russian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster. He was the World Chess Champion#Split title (1993–2006), Classical World Chess Champion from 2000 to 2006, and the 14th undisputed World Ch ...
in their
2004 World Championship Match.
Bobby Fischer
Robert James Fischer (March 9, 1943January 17, 2008) was an American Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster and the eleventh World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, he won his first of a record eight US Chess Champi ...
played the line in
game 14 of his
1972 match against
Boris Spassky
Boris Vasilyevich Spassky (; January 30, 1937 – February 27, 2025) was a Russian chess grandmaster who was the tenth World Chess Champion, holding the title from 1969 to 1972. Spassky played three world championship matches: he lost to Tigra ...
.
See also
*
Queen's Gambit
The Queen's Gambit is the chess opening that starts with the moves:
:1. d4 d5
:2. c4
It is one of the oldest openings and is still commonly played today. It is traditionally described as a '' gambit'' because White appears to sacrifice the ...
*
Queen's Gambit Accepted
The Queen's Gambit Accepted (QGA) is a chess opening characterised by the moves:
:1. d4 d5
:2. c4 dxc4
The Queen's Gambit Accepted is the third most popular option on Black's second move, after 2...e6 (the Queen's Gambit Declined) and 2.. ...
References
Bibliography
*
*
Further reading
*
*
*
*
*
{{Authority control
Chess openings