Grünfeld Defense: Exchange Variation, Nadanian Attack
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. cxd5 Nxd5 5. Na4
The Grünfeld Defense: Exchange Variation, Nadanian Attack is a chess opening classified as ECO D85, reached after 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. cxd5 Nxd5 5. Na4. It is a line of the Grünfeld Defense. Black is to move.
In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 44 times by this move order. White won 52%, 12% were drawn and Black won 36%. The most popular continuation is 5… Bg7 (84% of games).
Engine evaluation: +0.17 (Stockfish, depth 60; best line 5… e5 6. dxe5 Nc6 7. a3 Nxe5 8. e4)
- ECO
- D85
- Moves
- 9 plies
- FEN
rnbqkb1r/ppp1pp1p/6p1/3n4/N2P4/8/PP2PPPP/R1BQKBNR b KQkq - 1 5- PGN
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. cxd5 Nxd5 5. Na4
Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess
Results by rating
| Average rating | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 1500-1999 | 11 | |
| 2000+ | 33 | |
| All | 44 |
Most played moves
| Move | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 5… Bg7 | 37 (84%) | |
| 5… Nb6 | 5 (11%) | |
| 5… c6 | 1 (2%) | |
| 5… c5 | 1 (2%) |
Master games
374 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 40%, draw 27%, Black 33%). The strongest:
- GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (2765) – GM Fabiano Caruana (2802) 1/2-1/2 · Vugar Gashimov Mem 2015 · 2015-04-20
- GM Hikaru Nakamura (2754) – GM Ian Nepomniachtchi (2775) 1/2-1/2 · Croatia GCT 2019 · 2019-06-30
- GM Hikaru Nakamura (2736) – GM Ian Nepomniachtchi (2784) 1-0 · Online Nations Cup Prelim · 2020-05-08
- GM Jeffery Xiong (2709) – GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda (2757) 1/2-1/2 · Speed Chess Invitational · 2020-10-25
- GM Jeffery Xiong (2709) – GM Peter Svidler (2723) 1/2-1/2 · FIDE Steinitz Mem Open · 2020-05-15
Search all games of the Grünfeld Defense: Exchange Variation, Nadanian Attack and its sub-variations
Highest-rated Lichess games
- nekitka0525 (2601) – FNENAD (2555) 1-0 · 2026-09-01 · 180 + 0s
- nekitka0525 (2607) – Kozhedub_Ivan (2535) 0-1 · 2026-09-01 · 180 + 0s
- EmotionalChessKing (2455) – JAGMM (2633) 1-0 · 2026-09-03 · 180 + 2s
Comes from
Grünfeld Defense: Exchange Variation 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. cxd5 Nxd5
More Grünfeld Defense lines (all)
- Grünfeld Defense: Three Knights Variation, Burille Variation, Reversed Tarrasch A56
- Grünfeld Defense D80
- Grünfeld Defense: Gibbon Gambit D80
- Grünfeld Defense: Lundin Variation D80
- Grünfeld Defense: Lutikov Variation D80
- Grünfeld Defense: Lutikov Variation, Murrey Attack D80
- Grünfeld Defense: Stockholm Variation D80
- Grünfeld Defense: Zaitsev Gambit D80
- Grünfeld Defense: Russian Variation, Accelerated Variation D81
- Grünfeld Defense: Brinckmann Attack D82
- Grünfeld Defense: Brinckmann Attack, Grünfeld Gambit D83
- Grünfeld Defense: Brinckmann Attack, Grünfeld Gambit, Botvinnik Variation D83
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.