Danish Gambit Declined: Sörensen Defense

1. e4 e5 2. d4 exd4 3. c3 d5

The Danish Gambit Declined: Sörensen Defense is a chess opening classified as ECO C21, reached after 1. e4 e5 2. d4 exd4 3. c3 d5. It is a line of the Danish Gambit Declined. White is to move.

In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 2,761 times by this move order. White won 45%, 5% were drawn and Black won 50%. The most popular continuation is 4. exd5 (40% of games).

Engine evaluation: 0.00 (Stockfish, depth 53; best line 4. exd5 Qxd5 5. cxd4 Nc6 6. Nf3 Bg4)

ECO: C21
Moves: 6 plies
FEN: rnbqkbnr/ppp2ppp/8/3p4/3pP3/2P5/PP3PPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 0 4
PGN: 1. e4 e5 2. d4 exd4 3. c3 d5

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

Results by rating

Average rating	Games	White / draw / Black
0-1499	365	41%56%
1500-1999	1,671	45%51%
2000+	725	47%45%
All	2,761	45%50%

Most played moves

Move	Games	White / draw / Black
4. exd5	1,099 (40%)	48%46%
4. Qxd4	661 (24%)	44%51%
4. e5	500 (18%)	49%47%
4. cxd4	236 (9%)	36%58%
4. Bc4	107 (4%)	32%66%
4. Nf3	80 (3%)	35%60%
4. Bd3	16 (1%)	13%12%75%
4. Qa4+	11 (0%)	18%73%

Master games

328 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 39%, draw 16%, Black 45%). The strongest:

GM Magnus Carlsen (2853) – GM Levon Aronian (2745) 1-0 · Superbet Blitz 2023 · 2023-05-24
GM Nikolas Theodorou (2598) – GM Vladislav Artemiev (2701) 1/2-1/2 · chess.com SpeedChess Q2Sw · 2022-11-12
GM Nikolas Theodorou (2567) – GM Anton Demchenko (2654) 0-1 · Chess.com RCC Wk15 Swiss · 2022-05-21
GM Nikolas Theodorou (2598) – GM Aram Hakobyan (2613) 1-0 · chess.com SpeedChess Q2Sw · 2022-11-12
GM Nikolas Theodorou (2577) – GM David Paravyan (2617) 1/2-1/2 · World Blitz 2021 · 2021-12-30

Search all games of the Danish Gambit Declined: Sörensen Defense and its sub-variations

Highest-rated Lichess games

IM Jamorris94 (2779) – QuantumLeap1 (2709) 0-1 · 2026-09-05 · 180 + 0s
IM Angelicanmade (2556) – XuBofang (2575) 1-0 · 2026-09-03 · 180 + 0s
Predator_1988 (2462) – DiabloDiabloDiablo (2628) 1-0 · 2026-09-07 · 180 + 0s

Comes from

Danish Gambit 1. e4 e5 2. d4 exd4 3. c3

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.