Queen's Gambit Declined: Harrwitz Attack, Two Knights Defense
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. Nc3 Be7 5. Bf4 O-O 6. e3 Nbd7
The Queen's Gambit Declined: Harrwitz Attack, Two Knights Defense is a chess opening classified as ECO D37, reached after 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. Nc3 Be7 5. Bf4 O-O 6. e3 Nbd7. 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 14 times by this move order. White won 50%, 7% were drawn and Black won 43%. The most popular continuation is 7. cxd5 (36% of games).
Engine evaluation: +0.18 (Stockfish, depth 60; best line 7. a3 c5 8. cxd5 Nxd5 9. Nxd5 exd5)
- ECO
- D37
- Moves
- 12 plies
- FEN
r1bq1rk1/pppnbppp/4pn2/3p4/2PP1B2/2N1PN2/PP3PPP/R2QKB1R w KQ - 1 7- PGN
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. Nc3 Be7 5. Bf4 O-O 6. e3 Nbd7
Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess
Results by rating
| Average rating | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 1500-1999 | 3 | |
| 2000+ | 11 | |
| All | 14 |
Most played moves
| Move | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 7. cxd5 | 5 (36%) | |
| 7. c5 | 3 (21%) | |
| 7. Rc1 | 2 (14%) | |
| 7. Bd3 | 1 (7%) | |
| 7. h3 | 1 (7%) | |
| 7. Be2 | 1 (7%) | |
| 7. a3 | 1 (7%) |
Master games
915 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 30%, draw 49%, Black 21%). The strongest:
- GM Viswanathan Anand (2792) – GM Magnus Carlsen (2863) 1-0 · WCh 2014 · 2014-11-11
- GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (2799) – GM Magnus Carlsen (2837) 0-1 · World Blitz 2017 · 2017-12-30
- GM Magnus Carlsen (2863) – GM So, W. (2770) 1-0 · Saint Louis Blitz 2020 · 2020-09-19
- GM Magnus Carlsen (2862) – GM Teimour Radjabov (2765) 1/2-1/2 · Airthings Masters Prelim · 2020-12-26
- GM Viswanathan Anand (2793) – GM Fabiano Caruana (2829) 1/2-1/2 · 6th London Classic 2014 · 2014-12-11
Highest-rated Lichess games
- NM Andrey11976 (2795) – Minarque (2724) 1-0 · 2026-09-04 · 180 + 0s
- TimChesters (2409) – turton (2291) 0-1 · 2026-09-04 · 180 + 2s
- Warpath_007 (2328) – mattsingz (2339) 0-1 · 2026-09-05 · 600 + 0s
Comes from
Queen's Gambit Declined: Harrwitz Attack (4… Be7 5. Bf4) 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. Nc3 Be7 5. Bf4
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.