Grünfeld Defense: Exchange Variation, Simagin's Improved Variation
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. cxd5 Nxd5 5. e4 Nxc3 6. bxc3 Bg7 7. Bc4 O-O 8. Ne2 Nc6
The Grünfeld Defense: Exchange Variation, Simagin's Improved Variation is a chess opening classified as ECO D86, reached after 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. cxd5 Nxd5 5. e4 Nxc3 6. bxc3 Bg7 7. Bc4 O-O 8. Ne2 Nc6. It is a line of the Grünfeld Defense. White is to move.
In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 8 times by this move order. White won 63%, -1% were drawn and Black won 38%. The most popular continuation is 9. O-O (50% of games).
Engine evaluation: +0.23 (Stockfish, depth 32; best line 9. O-O Na5 10. Bd3 c5 11. Be3 b6)
- ECO
- D86
- Moves
- 16 plies
- FEN
r1bq1rk1/ppp1ppbp/2n3p1/8/2BPP3/2P5/P3NPPP/R1BQK2R w KQ - 5 9- PGN
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. cxd5 Nxd5 5. e4 Nxc3 6. bxc3 Bg7 7. Bc4 O-O 8. Ne2 Nc6
Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess
Results by rating
| Average rating | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 1500-1999 | 2 | |
| 2000+ | 6 | |
| All | 8 |
Most played moves
| Move | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 9. O-O | 4 (50%) | |
| 9. Be3 | 3 (38%) | |
| 9. h4 | 1 (13%) |
Master games
101 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 35%, draw 25%, Black 40%). The strongest:
- GM Magnus Carlsen (2863) – GM Levon Aronian (2773) 1-0 · Chess24 Banter Final 2020 · 2020-09-26
- GM Fabiano Caruana (2804) – GM Levon Aronian (2722) 1/2-1/2 · American Cup Champ · 2024-03-14
- GM Shant Sargsyan (2645) – GM Li Chao2 (2672) 1/2-1/2 · SCO National Chess Online · 2022-11-19
- GM Anton Korobov (2683) – GM Pavel Ponkratov (2625) 1-0 · Titled Tuesday 10th Nov · 2020-11-10
- GM Maxim Matlakov (2670) – GM Jinshi Bai (2585) 1-0 · World Rapid 2023 · 2023-12-27
Highest-rated Lichess games
- NM antonio96 (2380) – whaflc-jevtic (2455) 1-0 · 2026-09-06 · 180 + 2s
- bbrelaunch (2382) – miki2444 (2340) 0-1 · 2026-09-05 · 180 + 2s
- Pro29rus (2250) – Tallnicke (2262) 1-0 · 2026-09-06 · 180 + 0s
Comes from
Grünfeld Defense: Exchange Variation, Classical Variation 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. cxd5 Nxd5 5. e4 Nxc3 6. bxc3 Bg7 7. Bc4
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.