Queen's Gambit Accepted: Central Variation, Alekhine System
1. d4 d5 2. c4 dxc4 3. e4 Nf6
The Queen's Gambit Accepted: Central Variation, Alekhine System is a chess opening classified as ECO D20, reached after 1. d4 d5 2. c4 dxc4 3. e4 Nf6. It is a line of the Queen's Gambit Accepted. White is to move.
In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 5,456 times by this move order. White won 54%, 3% were drawn and Black won 43%. The most popular continuation is 4. Nc3 (63% of games).
Engine evaluation: +0.26 (Stockfish, depth 50; best line 4. e5 Nd5 5. Bxc4 Bf5 6. Ne2 Nb6)
- ECO
- D20
- Moves
- 6 plies
- FEN
rnbqkb1r/ppp1pppp/5n2/8/2pPP3/8/PP3PPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 1 4- PGN
1. d4 d5 2. c4 dxc4 3. e4 Nf6
Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess
Results by rating
| Average rating | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 0-1499 | 3,396 | |
| 1500-1999 | 1,825 | |
| 2000+ | 235 | |
| All | 5,456 |
Most played moves
| Move | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 4. Nc3 | 3,421 (63%) | |
| 4. e5 | 1,588 (29%) | |
| 4. Bxc4 | 281 (5%) | |
| 4. f3 | 74 (1%) | |
| 4. Nf3 | 37 (1%) | |
| 4. Bg5 | 13 (0%) | |
| 4. Qa4+ | 8 (0%) | |
| 4. Qc2 | 7 (0%) |
Master games
1,838 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 36%, draw 39%, Black 25%). The strongest:
- Reckless 0.10.0-dev-b5462f11 (3763) – Stockfish dev-20260318-d173a06 (3807) 1/2-1/2 · TCEC 29 Superfinal 2026 · 2026-03-31
- Stockfish dev-20260318-d173a06 (3807) – Reckless 0.10.0-dev-b5462f11 (3763) 1-0 · TCEC 29 Superfinal 2026 · 2026-03-31
- LCZero 0.30-dag-9a9c42d_784968 (3599) – Stockfish dev16_20221027 (3625) 1/2-1/2 · TCEC 23 Superfinal 2022 · 2022-11-09
- Stockfish dev16_20221027 (3625) – LCZero 0.30-dag-9a9c42d_784968 (3599) 1/2-1/2 · TCEC 23 Superfinal 2022 · 2022-11-09
- GM Alireza Firouzja (2749) – GM Magnus Carlsen (2862) 0-1 · Magnus-Alireza 27th Feb · 2021-02-27
Highest-rated Lichess games
- Chess1Love0 (2790) – GM CrazySage (2802) 1-0 · 2026-09-05 · 180 + 0s
- chaaa116 (2658) – RoryMcCann (2720) 1/2-1/2 · 2026-09-01 · 180 + 0s
- IM nocnypako (2667) – Surreptitiously421 (2572) 1-0 · 2026-09-01 · 180 + 0s
Comes from
Queen's Gambit Accepted: Saduleto Variation 1. d4 d5 2. c4 dxc4 3. e4
More Queen's Gambit Accepted lines (all)
- Queen's Gambit Accepted (2. c4 dxc4) D20
- Queen's Gambit Accepted: Accelerated Mannheim Variation D20
- Queen's Gambit Accepted: Central Variation, Greco Variation D20
- Queen's Gambit Accepted: Central Variation, McDonnell Defense D20
- Queen's Gambit Accepted: Central Variation, McDonnell Defense, Somov Gambit D20
- Queen's Gambit Accepted: Central Variation, Modern Defense D20
- Queen's Gambit Accepted: Central Variation, Rubinstein Defense D20
- Queen's Gambit Accepted: Central Variation, Rubinstein Defense, Yefimov Gambit D20
- Queen's Gambit Accepted: Linares Variation D20
- Queen's Gambit Accepted: Old Variation D20
- Queen's Gambit Accepted: Old Variation, Billinger Gambit D20
- Queen's Gambit Accepted: Old Variation, Christensen Gambit D20
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.