Queen's Gambit Declined (7… h6 8. Bh4)

1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 Nc6 5. Bg5 Be7 6. e3 O-O 7. Rc1 h6 8. Bh4

The Queen's Gambit Declined is a chess opening classified as ECO D56, reached after 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 Nc6 5. Bg5 Be7 6. e3 O-O 7. Rc1 h6 8. Bh4. Black is to move. 1 named line continues from this position.

This exact move order didn't appear in our sample of 12.6 million Lichess games: it's a rare line.

Engine evaluation: +0.34 (Stockfish, depth 32; best line 8… Ne4 9. Bxe7 Nxe7 10. Qc2 Nxc3 11. Qxc3)

ECO: D56
Moves: 15 plies
FEN: r1bq1rk1/ppp1bpp1/2n1pn1p/3p4/2PP3B/2N1PN2/PP3PPP/2RQKB1R b K - 1 8
PGN: 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 Nc6 5. Bg5 Be7 6. e3 O-O 7. Rc1 h6 8. Bh4

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

Comes from

Queen's Gambit Declined (6. e3 O-O) 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 Nc6 5. Bg5 Be7 6. e3 O-O

Continuations

Queen's Gambit Declined: Lasker Defense (8. Bh4 Ne4) D56 · 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 Nc6 5. Bg5 Be7 6. e3 O-O 7. Rc1 h6 8. Bh4 Ne4

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.