Queen's Gambit Declined (4. Bg5 Be7)

1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Be7

The Queen's Gambit Declined is a chess opening classified as ECO D53, reached after 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Be7. White is to move. 7 named lines continue from this position.

In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 9,243 times by this move order. White won 50%, 6% were drawn and Black won 44%. The most popular continuation is 5. e3 (50% of games).

Engine evaluation: +0.14 (Stockfish, depth 60; best line 5. e3 h6 6. Bh4 O-O 7. Nf3 b6)

ECO: D53
Moves: 8 plies
FEN: rnbqk2r/ppp1bppp/4pn2/3p2B1/2PP4/2N5/PP2PPPP/R2QKBNR w KQkq - 4 5
PGN: 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Be7

Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess

Results by rating

Average rating	Games	White / draw / Black
0-1499	1,302	50%46%
1500-1999	5,868	50%44%
2000+	2,073	49%43%
All	9,243	50%44%

Most played moves

Move	Games	White / draw / Black
5. e3	4,590 (50%)	51%44%
5. Nf3 Queen's Gambit Declined (4… Be7 5. Nf3)	2,905 (31%)	50%44%
5. Bxf6 Modern Variation, Heral Variation	685 (7%)	50%45%
5. cxd5	570 (6%)	47%48%
5. c5	144 (2%)	53%40%
5. f3	68 (1%)	50%49%
5. e4	48 (1%)	44%56%
5. Qc2	42 (0%)	52%45%

Master games

2,989 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 45%, draw 28%, Black 27%). The strongest:

rofChade 2.217 (3660) – Xiphos 0.6.1 (3717) 1/2-1/2 · 5th TCEC Cup 2020 · 2020-04-25
Xiphos 0.6.1 (3717) – rofChade 2.217 (3660) 1/2-1/2 · 5th TCEC Cup 2020 · 2020-04-25
Stockfishdev-20240413-c55ae376 (3657) – LCZero0.31-dag-5350a2e-BT4-6147500 (3628) 1-0 · TCEC 26 Premier 2024 · 2024-05-08
LCZero0.31-dag-5350a2e-BT4-6147500 (3628) – Stockfishdev-20240413-c55ae376 (3657) 1/2-1/2 · TCEC 26 Premier 2024 · 2024-05-06
KomodoDragon 3.2 (3569) – LCZero 0.30-dag-8092b376-BT2-3 (3573) 1-0 · TCEC 24 Premier P/O 2023 · 2023-04-07

Search all games of the Queen's Gambit Declined and its sub-variations

Highest-rated Lichess games

Superstitions_Guy (2767) – CM titanshahmat2003 (2729) 0-1 · 2026-09-03 · 180 + 0s
slouuurps (2755) – Yaponets (2579) 1-0 · 2026-09-02 · 180 + 0s
Your_Waterloo (2691) – Richwinter (2603) 1/2-1/2 · 2026-09-02 · 180 + 0s

Comes from

Queen's Gambit Declined: Modern Variation 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5

Continuations

Queen's Gambit Declined (4… Be7 5. Nf3) D53 · 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Be7 5. Nf3
Queen's Gambit Declined: Modern Variation, Heral Variation D53 · 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Be7 5. Bxf6
Queen's Gambit Declined: Orthodox Defense, Rubinstein Variation (6… Nbd7 7. Qc2) D61 · 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Be7 5. e3 O-O 6. Nf3 Nbd7 7. Qc2
Queen's Gambit Declined: Orthodox Defense, Bd3 Line (7… c6 8. Bd3) D66 · 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Be7 5. e3 O-O 6. Nf3 Nbd7 7. Rc1 c6 8. Bd3
Queen's Gambit Declined: Orthodox Defense, Main Line (8. Bh4 c5) D63 · 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Be7 5. e3 Nbd7 6. Nf3 O-O 7. Rc1 h6 8. Bh4 c5
Queen's Gambit Declined: Lasker Defense, Bernstein Variation, Mar del Plata Gambit D57 · 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Be7 5. e3 O-O 6. Nf3 h6 7. Bh4 Ne4 8. Bxe7 Qxe7 9. cxd5 Nxc3 10. bxc3 exd5 11. Qb3 Rd8 12. c4 Be6
Queen's Gambit Declined: Lasker Defense, Russian Variation D56 · 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Be7 5. e3 O-O 6. Nf3 h6 7. Bh4 Ne4 8. Bxe7 Qxe7 9. Qc2 Nf6 10. Bd3 dxc4 11. Bxc4 c5 12. O-O Nc6 13. Rfd1 Bd7

More Queen's Gambit Declined lines (all)

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.