Queen's Gambit Declined: Capablanca Variation, Anti-Cambridge Springs Variation
1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Nbd7 5. e3 c6 6. a3
The Queen's Gambit Declined: Capablanca Variation, Anti-Cambridge Springs Variation is a chess opening classified as ECO D51, reached after 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Nbd7 5. e3 c6 6. a3. It is a line of the Queen's Gambit Declined. Black is to move.
In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 8 times by this move order. White won 25%, 12% were drawn and Black won 63%. The most popular continuation is 6… Be7 (25% of games).
Engine evaluation: +0.22 (Stockfish, depth 50; best line 6… h6 7. Bh4 Be7 8. Qc2 e5 9. Nf3)
- ECO
- D51
- Moves
- 11 plies
- FEN
r1bqkb1r/pp1n1ppp/2p1pn2/3p2B1/2PP4/P1N1P3/1P3PPP/R2QKBNR b KQkq - 0 6- PGN
1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Nbd7 5. e3 c6 6. a3
Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess
Results by rating
| Average rating | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 1500-1999 | 4 | |
| 2000+ | 4 | |
| All | 8 |
Most played moves
| Move | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 6… Be7 | 2 (25%) | |
| 6… dxc4 | 2 (25%) | |
| 6… a5 | 1 (13%) | |
| 6… Qa5 | 1 (13%) | |
| 6… h6 | 1 (13%) | |
| 6… b6 | 1 (13%) |
Master games
12 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 33%, draw 42%, Black 25%). The strongest:
- GM Suat Atalik (2603) – GM Mihajlo Stojanovic (2572) 1-0 · TCh-Central SRB 2012 · 2012-09-30
- GM Pa Iniyan (2586) – GM Titas Stremavicius (2549) 1-0 · 31st Abu Dhabi Masters · 2025-08-19
- GM Ivan Morovic Fernandez (2495) – GM Constantin Lupulescu (2588) 1/2-1/2 · Chess.com Classic Play-In · 2024-05-08
- GM Hristos Banikas (2644) – FM Sotirios Malikentzos (2380) 1/2-1/2 · 4th Isthmia Open 2014 · 2014-08-19
- GM Dragan Barlov (2439) – Julio Torrado Quintela (2247) 1-0 · 2nd Pontevedra Open 2014 · 2014-08-12
Highest-rated Lichess games
- GM cutemouse83 (2939) – GM Fabsid (2826) 0-1 · 2026-09-03 · 180 + 0s
- Heavens_Knight (2197) – TheForeverVirgin234 (2400) 1-0 · 2026-09-01 · 1500 + 0s
- balloonn (2116) – JOSE_360 (2218) 0-1 · 2026-09-05 · 600 + 0s
Comes from
Queen's Gambit Declined: Modern Variation, Knight Defense (5. e3 c6) 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Nbd7 5. e3 c6
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.