Queen's Gambit Accepted: Central Variation, McDonnell Defense
1. d4 d5 2. c4 dxc4 3. e4 e5
The Queen's Gambit Accepted: Central Variation, McDonnell Defense is a chess opening classified as ECO D20, reached after 1. d4 d5 2. c4 dxc4 3. e4 e5. It is a line of the Queen's Gambit Accepted. White is to move. 1 named line continues from this position.
In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 5,688 times by this move order. White won 52%, 5% were drawn and Black won 43%. The most popular continuation is 4. d5 (60% of games).
Engine evaluation: +0.28 (Stockfish, depth 60; best line 4. Nf3 exd4 5. Bxc4 Nc6 6. O-O Be6)
- ECO
- D20
- Moves
- 6 plies
- FEN
rnbqkbnr/ppp2ppp/8/4p3/2pPP3/8/PP3PPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 0 4- PGN
1. d4 d5 2. c4 dxc4 3. e4 e5
Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess
Results by rating
| Average rating | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 0-1499 | 2,530 | |
| 1500-1999 | 2,549 | |
| 2000+ | 609 | |
| All | 5,688 |
Most played moves
| Move | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 4. d5 | 3,427 (60%) | |
| 4. Nf3 | 1,571 (28%) | |
| 4. Bxc4 Central Variation, McDonnell Defense, Somov Gambit | 459 (8%) | |
| 4. dxe5 | 144 (3%) | |
| 4. Be3 | 27 (0%) | |
| 4. Nc3 | 25 (0%) | |
| 4. Qa4+ | 25 (0%) | |
| 4. a3 | 2 (0%) |
Master games
1,894 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 45%, draw 26%, Black 29%). The strongest:
- LCZero 0.31-dag-f7fb268-BT4-61 (3652) – Stockfish dev-20241208-cf10644 (3683) 1/2-1/2 · TCEC 27 Superfinal 2024 · 2024-12-27
- Stockfish dev-20241208-cf10644 (3683) – LCZero 0.31-dag-f7fb268-BT4-61 (3652) 1/2-1/2 · TCEC 27 Superfinal 2024 · 2024-12-27
- LCZero0.31-dag-5350a2e-BT4-6147500 (3634) – Stockfishdev-20240513-e608eab8 (3662) 1/2-1/2 · TCEC 26 Superfinal 2024 · 2024-05-29
- Stockfishdev-20240513-e608eab8 (3662) – LCZero0.31-dag-5350a2e-BT4-6147500 (3634) 1-0 · TCEC 26 Superfinal 2024 · 2024-05-29
- Berserk20250622 (3650) – Integral7.0.0-dev-0d55bc02 (3576) 1/2-1/2 · TCEC 28 Premier 2025 · 2025-08-03
Highest-rated Lichess games
- GrazyHunter (2713) – IM SpeedMonkey (2665) 1-0 · 2026-09-07 · 180 + 0s
- July16Q (2667) – FM Crew12 (2708) 0-1 · 2026-09-06 · 180 + 0s
- Minarque (2729) – IM SpeedMonkey (2604) 1/2-1/2 · 2026-09-04 · 180 + 0s
Comes from
Queen's Gambit Accepted: Saduleto Variation 1. d4 d5 2. c4 dxc4 3. e4
Continuations
- Queen's Gambit Accepted: Central Variation, McDonnell Defense, Somov Gambit D20 · 1. d4 d5 2. c4 dxc4 3. e4 e5 4. Bxc4
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, Alekhine System D20
- Queen's Gambit Accepted: Central Variation, Greco Variation 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
- Queen's Gambit Accepted: Old Variation, Korchnoi 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.