Closed · a plan for White
Queen's Gambit Declined: Modern Variation, Knight Defense
8/8
1.d4d52.c4e63.Nc3Nf64.Bg5Nbd7
Live databaseLichess 1600–2000 · blitz + rapid
Queen's Gambit Declined: Modern Variation, Knight Defense758k games · White to move
MoveWhite / draw / BlackPlayedGamesScore
27%206k51%
15%110k46%
4.9%37k47%
2%15k58%
1.1%8.4k50%
0.8%6.1k53%
0.7%5.2k48%
0.4%3.3k49%
0.2%1.8k50%
Famous games in this line1.4k master games
Mamedyarov, S. (2762) – Ivanisevic, I. (2641)Jakovenko, D. (2723) – Lupulescu, C. (2643)Ivanchuk, V. (2722) – Ivanisevic, I. (2641)Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar (2752) – Grachev, Boris (2610)Korobov, A. (2692) – Kuzubov, Y. (2651)Tomashevsky, E. (2712) – Lu Shanglei (2611)Dudin, Gleb (2506) – Caruana, F. (2805)Wang Yue (2684) – Lu Shanglei (2625)Heroes of this opening Mamedyarov, S. · Ivanchuk, V. · Caruana, F. · Wang Yue
- Family
- Queen's Gambit
- Category
- Closed
- First move
- 1.d4
- ECO
- D51
- Line
- 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 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: Manhattan Variation5.e3 Bb4Queen's Gambit Declined: Alekhine Variation5.Nf3 c6 6.e4Queen's Gambit Declined: Capablanca Variation, Anti-Cambridge Springs Variation5.e3 c6 6.a3Queen's Gambit Declined: Rochlin Variation5.Nf3 c6 6.Rc1 Qa5 7.Bd2
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