Queen's Gambit Declined: Exchange Variation, Carlsen Variation
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 d5 4. cxd5 exd5 5. Bg5 Be7 6. e3 h6 7. Bh4 Bg4
The Queen's Gambit Declined: Exchange Variation, Carlsen Variation is a chess opening classified as ECO D35, reached after 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 d5 4. cxd5 exd5 5. Bg5 Be7 6. e3 h6 7. Bh4 Bg4. It is a line of the Queen's Gambit Declined. White is to move.
In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 3 times by this move order. White won 100%, 0% were drawn and Black won 0%. The most popular continuation is 8. Nf3 (33% of games).
Engine evaluation: +0.31 (Stockfish, depth 46; best line 8. Qb3 Nbd7 9. Bg3 O-O 10. Bd3 c5)
- ECO
- D35
- Moves
- 14 plies
- FEN
rn1qk2r/ppp1bpp1/5n1p/3p4/3P2bB/2N1P3/PP3PPP/R2QKBNR w KQkq - 2 8- PGN
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 d5 4. cxd5 exd5 5. Bg5 Be7 6. e3 h6 7. Bh4 Bg4
Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess
Results by rating
| Average rating | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 1500-1999 | 1 | |
| 2000+ | 2 | |
| All | 3 |
Most played moves
| Move | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 8. Nf3 | 1 (33%) | |
| 8. Qb3 | 1 (33%) | |
| 8. Qc2 | 1 (33%) |
Master games
160 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 34%, draw 30%, Black 36%). The strongest:
- GM Hikaru Nakamura (2794) – GM Magnus Carlsen (2830) 1-0 · 12th Norway Armageddon · 2024-06-03
- GM Santosh Gujrathi Vidit (2716) – GM Magnus Carlsen (2839) 0-1 · chess.com SpeedChess 2023 · 2023-09-12
- GM Levon Aronian (2737) – GM So, W. (2745) 1/2-1/2 · 12th Sinquefield Cup · 2025-08-24
- GM Ian Nepomniachtchi (2732) – GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (2737) 0-1 · Titled Tue 28th Oct 2025 · 2025-10-28
- GM Constantin Lupulescu (2584) – GM Magnus Carlsen (2835) 0-1 · SuperUnited Blitz 2023 · 2023-07-08
Highest-rated Lichess games
- GeForceExperience (2616) – alexlele2008 (2639) 1-0 · 2026-09-02 · 180 + 0s
- WHITE_DATA_2 (2045) – arua16 (2021) 1-0 · 2026-09-06 · 600 + 5s
- markmarkedymarkmark (1880) – Kuandr (1762) 1-0 · 2026-09-06 · 180 + 2s
Comes from
Queen's Gambit Declined: Exchange Variation, Positional Variation (4… exd5 5. Bg5) 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 d5 4. cxd5 exd5 5. Bg5
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.