Grünfeld Defense: Russian Variation, Accelerated Variation
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. Qb3
The Grünfeld Defense: Russian Variation, Accelerated Variation is a chess opening classified as ECO D81, reached after 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. Qb3. 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 109 times by this move order. White won 45%, 7% were drawn and Black won 48%. The most popular continuation is 4… dxc4 (78% of games).
Engine evaluation: 0.00 (Stockfish, depth 46; best line 4… dxc4 5. Qxc4 Be6 6. Qa4+ Bd7 7. Qb3)
- ECO
- D81
- Moves
- 7 plies
- FEN
rnbqkb1r/ppp1pp1p/5np1/3p4/2PP4/1QN5/PP2PPPP/R1B1KBNR b KQkq - 1 4- PGN
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. Qb3
Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess
Results by rating
| Average rating | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 0-1499 | 1 | |
| 1500-1999 | 36 | |
| 2000+ | 72 | |
| All | 109 |
Most played moves
| Move | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 4… dxc4 | 85 (78%) | |
| 4… c6 | 14 (13%) | |
| 4… Bg7 | 5 (5%) | |
| 4… Nc6 | 1 (1%) | |
| 4… c5 | 1 (1%) | |
| 4… Be6 | 1 (1%) | |
| 4… b6 | 1 (1%) | |
| 4… e6 | 1 (1%) |
Master games
387 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 46%, draw 23%, Black 31%). The strongest:
- GM Hikaru Nakamura (2814) – GM Fabiano Caruana (2808) 1/2-1/2 · 3rd Sinquefield Cup 2015 · 2015-08-25
- GM Erigaisi Arjun (2799) – GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (2737) 1/2-1/2 · Chennai GM 2024 · 2024-11-11
- GM Ruslan Ponomariov (2711) – GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (2723) 1/2-1/2 · 28th Leon GM 2015 · 2015-06-12
- GM Alexander Riazantsev (2708) – GM Ian Nepomniachtchi (2717) 1/2-1/2 · 66th ch-RUS HL · 2013-06-26
- GM So, W. (2677) – GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (2705) 0-1 · 6th SPICE Cup GM · 2012-10-20
Highest-rated Lichess games
- FanHalen (2781) – FNENAD (2638) 1-0 · 2026-09-06 · 180 + 0s
- CM The_chess_child (2587) – BlitzRoadTo2600 (2504) 1-0 · 2026-09-05 · 180 + 2s
- SecretOpenings37 (2521) – BlindMonster (2551) 0-1 · 2026-09-01 · 180 + 0s
Comes from
Grünfeld Defense 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5
More Grünfeld Defense lines (all)
- Grünfeld Defense: Three Knights Variation, Burille Variation, Reversed Tarrasch A56
- 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: Brinckmann Attack D82
- Grünfeld Defense: Brinckmann Attack, Grünfeld Gambit D83
- Grünfeld Defense: Brinckmann Attack, Grünfeld Gambit, Botvinnik Variation D83
- Grünfeld Defense: Brinckmann Attack, Grünfeld Gambit, Capablanca Variation D83
- Grünfeld Defense: Brinckmann Attack, Reshevsky Gambit 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.