Indian · a plan for White
Queen's Gambit Declined: Barmen Variation
8/8
1.d4Nf62.c4e63.Nf3d54.Nc3Nbd7
Live databaseLichess 1600–2000 · blitz + rapid
Queen's Gambit Declined: Barmen Variation572k games · White to move
MoveWhite / draw / BlackPlayedGamesScore
50%285k52%
17%95k51%
15%88k55%
7.3%42k54%
5.2%29k55%
1.5%8.5k50%
1.4%7.8k52%
0.9%5.1k52%
0.8%4.4k54%
0.2%1.3k54%
Famous games in this line6.0k master games
Aronian, Levon (2813) – Carlsen, Magnus (2868)Grischuk, A. (2792) – Carlsen, M. (2881)Grischuk, A. (2792) – Carlsen, M. (2881)Carlsen, M. (2872) – Mamedyarov, S. (2772)Carlsen, M. (2872) – Mamedyarov, S. (2772)Nakamura, Hi (2787) – Carlsen, M. (2855)Gelfand, Boris (2755) – Carlsen, Magnus (2864)Carlsen, M. (2840) – Erigaisi, Arjun (2775)Heroes of this opening Carlsen, M.
- Family
- Queen's Gambit
- Category
- Indian
- First move
- 1.d4
- ECO
- D37
- Line
- 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. Nc3 Nbd7
Classical
★ Read the guide: Queen's Gambit DeclinedExplore all 257 Queen's Gambit lines →Keep exploring
Go deeper — named lines from here
Queen's Gambit Declined: Exchange Variation, Sämisch Variation5.cxd5 exd5 6.Bf4Queen's Gambit Declined: Knight Defense, Alekhine Gambit5.Bg5 h6 6.Bh4 dxc4
Nearby lines in the family
From the archives
The Queen's Gambit appears in the Göttingen manuscript, written around 1500. It anchored world-championship matches for decades — 32 of the 34 games of Capablanca–Alekhine 1927 were Queen's Gambit Declined — and in 2020 a Netflix series watched by 62 million households emptied the world's chess-set shelves. It isn't even a real gambit: Black cannot safely keep the pawn.
Study this opening