Queen's Gambit Declined: Cambridge Springs Defense (6… Qa5 7. cxd5)
1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 e6 5. Bg5 Nbd7 6. e3 Qa5 7. cxd5
The Queen's Gambit Declined: Cambridge Springs Defense is a chess opening classified as ECO D52, reached after 1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 e6 5. Bg5 Nbd7 6. e3 Qa5 7. cxd5. It is a line of the Queen's Gambit Declined. Black is to move. 1 named line continues from this position.
In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 16 times by this move order. White won 50%, 6% were drawn and Black won 44%. The most popular continuation is 7… Nxd5 (81% of games).
Engine evaluation: +0.28 (Stockfish, depth 36; best line 7… Nxd5 8. Qd2 Nxc3 9. bxc3 b6 10. Bd3)
- ECO
- D52
- Moves
- 13 plies
- FEN
r1b1kb1r/pp1n1ppp/2p1pn2/q2P2B1/3P4/2N1PN2/PP3PPP/R2QKB1R b KQkq - 0 7- PGN
1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 e6 5. Bg5 Nbd7 6. e3 Qa5 7. cxd5
Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess
Results by rating
| Average rating | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 1500-1999 | 8 | |
| 2000+ | 8 | |
| All | 16 |
Most played moves
| Move | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 7… Nxd5 Cambridge Springs Defense, Yugoslav Variation | 13 (81%) | |
| 7… exd5 | 2 (13%) | |
| 7… Ne4 | 1 (6%) |
Master games
65 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 54%, draw 29%, Black 17%). The strongest:
- GM Evgeny Tomashevsky (2758) – GM Ngoc Truong Son Nguyen (2634) 1-0 · FIDE World Cup 2015 · 2015-09-16
- GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda (2726) – GM Anton Korobov (2658) 1-0 · FIDE Grand Swiss 2023 · 2023-11-05
- GM Evgeny Tomashevsky (2695) – GM Ngoc Truong Son Nguyen (2621) 1-0 · FIDE World Rapid 2014 · 2014-06-18
- GM Dennis Wagner (2583) – GM Xiangzhi Bu (2724) 1/2-1/2 · Aeroflot Open A 2016 · 2016-03-02
- GM Quang Liem Le (2722) – GM Nitzan Steinberg (2542) 1-0 · Chess.com RCC Wk23 Swiss · 2022-07-30
Search all games of the Queen's Gambit Declined: Cambridge Springs Defense and its sub-variations
Highest-rated Lichess games
- RadioJoy (2598) – LTL_0880 (2547) 0-1 · 2026-09-03 · 180 + 2s
- Miura2025 (2460) – differently_built (2538) 0-1 · 2026-09-03 · 180 + 0s
- usv (2216) – BattlesChess (2388) 1-0 · 2026-09-07 · 180 + 2s
Comes from
Queen's Gambit Declined: Cambridge Springs Defense (6. e3 Qa5) 1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 e6 5. Bg5 Nbd7 6. e3 Qa5
Continuations
- Queen's Gambit Declined: Cambridge Springs Defense, Yugoslav Variation D52 · 1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 e6 5. Bg5 Nbd7 6. e3 Qa5 7. cxd5 Nxd5
More Queen's Gambit Declined lines (all)
- Queen's Gambit Declined: Baltic Defense, Pseudo-Slav D02
- Queen's Gambit Declined: Austrian Attack, Salvio Countergambit D06
- Queen's Gambit Declined: Austrian Defense D06
- Queen's Gambit Declined: Austrian Defense, Gusev Countergambit D06
- Queen's Gambit Declined: Austrian Defense, Haberditz Variation D06
- Queen's Gambit Declined: Baltic Defense D06
- Queen's Gambit Declined: Baltic Defense, Argentinian Gambit D06
- Queen's Gambit Declined: Baltic Defense, Pseudo-Chigorin D06
- Queen's Gambit Declined: Baltic Defense, Queen Attack D06
- Queen's Gambit Declined: Baltic Defense, Queen Attack Deferred D06
- Queen's Gambit Declined: Marshall Defense D06
- Queen's Gambit Declined: Marshall Defense, Tan Gambit D06
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.