Queen's Gambit Declined: Chigorin Defense, Exchange Variation, Costa's Line
1. d4 d5 2. c4 Nc6 3. cxd5 Qxd5 4. e3 e5 5. Nc3 Bb4 6. Bd2 Bxc3 7. Bxc3 exd4 8. Ne2
The Queen's Gambit Declined: Chigorin Defense, Exchange Variation, Costa's Line is a chess opening classified as ECO D07, reached after 1. d4 d5 2. c4 Nc6 3. cxd5 Qxd5 4. e3 e5 5. Nc3 Bb4 6. Bd2 Bxc3 7. Bxc3 exd4 8. Ne2. 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 17 times by this move order. White won 35%, 12% were drawn and Black won 53%. The most popular continuation is 8… Nf6 (47% of games).
Engine evaluation: +0.37 (Stockfish, depth 34; best line 8… Nf6 9. Nxd4 O-O 10. Nxc6 Qxc6 11. Rc1)
- ECO
- D07
- Moves
- 15 plies
- FEN
r1b1k1nr/ppp2ppp/2n5/3q4/3p4/2B1P3/PP2NPPP/R2QKB1R b KQkq - 1 8- PGN
1. d4 d5 2. c4 Nc6 3. cxd5 Qxd5 4. e3 e5 5. Nc3 Bb4 6. Bd2 Bxc3 7. Bxc3 exd4 8. Ne2
Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess
Results by rating
| Average rating | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 1500-1999 | 1 | |
| 2000+ | 16 | |
| All | 17 |
Most played moves
| Move | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 8… Nf6 | 8 (47%) | |
| 8… Bg4 | 7 (41%) | |
| 8… Nge7 | 2 (12%) |
Master games
121 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 45%, draw 30%, Black 25%). The strongest:
- GM Fabiano Caruana (2763) – IM Thomas Beerdsen (2521) 1/2-1/2 · Titled Tue 25th Oct Early · 2022-10-25
- GM Nikola Sedlak (2568) – GM Igor Miladinovic (2583) 1/2-1/2 · 8th ch-SRB 2014 · 2014-04-07
- GM Ulibin, M. (2529) – GM Igor Miladinovic (2558) 1/2-1/2 · 6th ch-Cent SRB Int 2013 · 2013-07-09
- IM Tiberiu-Marian Georgescu (2492) – GM Kaido Kulaots (2571) 1/2-1/2 · Iasi Open 2014 · 2014-05-14
- GM Markus Ragger (2687) – Vadim Razin (2345) 0-1 · European Blitz 2015 · 2015-12-18
Highest-rated Lichess games
- DeeplyEpicI (2497) – CM YuraGar (2573) 1-0 · 2026-09-02 · 180 + 0s
- kmuruganim (2474) – ErnstStavroBlofeld96 (2378) 0-1 · 2026-09-04 · 180 + 2s
- FM TorVik-2 (2444) – Neco93 (2366) 1-0 · 2026-09-01 · 180 + 0s
Comes from
Queen's Gambit Declined: Chigorin Defense, Exchange Variation 1. d4 d5 2. c4 Nc6 3. cxd5 Qxd5
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.