Benko Gambit Declined: Main Line

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. d5 b5 4. Nf3

The Benko Gambit Declined: Main Line is a chess opening classified as ECO A57, reached after 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. d5 b5 4. Nf3. It is a line of the Benko Gambit Declined. Black is to move.

In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 305 times by this move order. White won 48%, 7% were drawn and Black won 45%. The most popular continuation is 4… g6 (32% of games).

Engine evaluation: +0.41 (Stockfish, depth 49; best line 4… b4 5. Nbd2 g6 6. e4 d6 7. e5)

ECO: A57
Moves: 7 plies
FEN: rnbqkb1r/p2ppppp/5n2/1ppP4/2P5/5N2/PP2PPPP/RNBQKB1R b KQkq - 1 4
PGN: 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. d5 b5 4. Nf3

Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess

Results by rating

Average rating	Games	White / draw / Black
0-1499	6	67%33%
1500-1999	75	45%51%
2000+	224	48%44%
All	305	48%45%

Most played moves

Move	Games	White / draw / Black
4… g6	98 (32%)	49%44%
4… bxc4	93 (30%)	47%46%
4… b4	41 (13%)	32%66%
4… d6	33 (11%)	58%12%30%
4… Bb7	16 (5%)	38%63%
4… e6	14 (5%)	71%29%
4… a6	6 (2%)	50%50%
4… Qa5+	1 (0%)	100%

Master games

1,166 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 52%, draw 19%, Black 29%). The strongest:

Caissa 1.21.2 (3545) – Stockfish dev-20241122-b7f17346 (3677) 1/2-1/2 · TCEC 27 Premier 2024 · 2024-12-10
Stockfish dev-20241122-b7f17346 (3677) – Caissa 1.21.2 (3545) 1-0 · TCEC 27 Premier 2024 · 2024-12-08
KomodoDragon 3.2 (3569) – LCZero 0.30-dag-8092b376-BT2-3 (3573) 1/2-1/2 · TCEC 24 Premier 2023 · 2023-03-30
LCZero 0.30-dag-8092b376-BT2-3 (3573) – KomodoDragon 3.2 (3569) 1-0 · TCEC 24 Premier 2023 · 2023-03-27
GM Vincent Keymer (2767) – GM Javokhir Sindarov (2777) 0-1 · 13th Sinquefield Cup · 2026-08-17

Search all games of the Benko Gambit Declined: Main Line and its sub-variations

Highest-rated Lichess games

GM sillyMASTER (2851) – V4ess (2668) 0-1 · 2026-09-03 · 180 + 0s
CTECNyalllKA (2670) – jaymseuzs (2584) 1-0 · 2026-09-01 · 180 + 0s
teknasw (2660) – FM Konnov_Oleg (2585) 1-0 · 2026-09-01 · 180 + 0s

Comes from

Benko Gambit (3. d5 b5) 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. d5 b5

More Benko Gambit Declined lines (all)

Opening names and moves from the Lichess openings dataset; statistics from the Lichess open database, 2026-09 (CC0), sample of 12.6 million games, bots excluded; evaluations from Lichess cloud analysis (all CC0). Master games from The Week in Chess #920–#1664 by Mark Crowther, used with permission.