Philidor Defense: Paulsen Attack
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 exd4 4. Nxd4 d5 5. exd5
The Philidor Defense: Paulsen Attack is a chess opening classified as ECO C41, reached after 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 exd4 4. Nxd4 d5 5. exd5. It is a line of the Philidor Defense. Black is to move.
In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 76 times by this move order. White won 62%, 4% were drawn and Black won 34%. The most popular continuation is 5… Qxd5 (86% of games).
Engine evaluation: +1.13 (Stockfish, depth 32; best line 5… Qxd5 6. Qe2+ Be6 7. Nb5 Qd7 8. Bf4)
- ECO
- C41
- Moves
- 9 plies
- FEN
rnbqkbnr/ppp2ppp/8/3P4/3N4/8/PPP2PPP/RNBQKB1R b KQkq - 0 5- PGN
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 exd4 4. Nxd4 d5 5. exd5
Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess
Results by rating
| Average rating | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 0-1499 | 61 | |
| 1500-1999 | 14 | |
| 2000+ | 1 | |
| All | 76 |
Most played moves
| Move | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 5… Qxd5 | 65 (86%) | |
| 5… Qe7+ | 4 (5%) | |
| 5… Bc5 | 2 (3%) | |
| 5… Qh4 | 1 (1%) | |
| 5… Bb4+ | 1 (1%) | |
| 5… c5 | 1 (1%) | |
| 5… Qd7 | 1 (1%) | |
| 5… Nf6 | 1 (1%) |
Master games
3 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 100%, draw 0%, Black 0%). The strongest:
- Fabian Matt (2233) – Philipp Scheffknecht (2114) 1-0 · ch-AUT 2013 · 2013-07-26
Search all games of the Philidor Defense: Paulsen Attack and its sub-variations
Highest-rated Lichess games
- Figurenklotz (2427) – kintoho (2502) 1-0 · 2026-09-04 · 180 + 0s
- RanchoColapsoo (1947) – hamidts (1938) 0-1 · 2026-09-05 · 300 + 0s
- doing_hard_things (1894) – hamidts (1915) 1-0 · 2026-09-03 · 300 + 0s
Comes from
Philidor Defense: Exchange Variation (3… exd4 4. Nxd4) 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 exd4 4. Nxd4
More Philidor Defense lines (all)
- Philidor Defense (2. Nf3 d6) C41
- Philidor Defense (2… d6 3. d4) C41
- Philidor Defense (2… d6 3. Bc4) C41
- Philidor Defense (3. Bc4 Be7) C41
- Philidor Defense: Albin-Blackburne Gambit C41
- Philidor Defense: Berger Variation C41
- Philidor Defense: Bird Gambit C41
- Philidor Defense: Boden Variation C41
- Philidor Defense: Exchange Variation (3. d4 exd4) C41
- Philidor Defense: Exchange Variation (4. Nxd4 Nf6) C41
- Philidor Defense: Hanham Variation C41
- Philidor Defense: Hanham Variation, Delmar Variation C41
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.