Queen's Gambit Declined: Lasker Defense (7. e3 Ne4)
1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Be7 4. Nf3 Nf6 5. Bg5 h6 6. Bh4 O-O 7. e3 Ne4
The Queen's Gambit Declined: Lasker Defense is a chess opening classified as ECO D56, reached after 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Be7 4. Nf3 Nf6 5. Bg5 h6 6. Bh4 O-O 7. e3 Ne4. It is a line of the Queen's Gambit Declined. White is to move. 1 named line continues from this position.
In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 8 times by this move order. White won 50%, 0% were drawn and Black won 50%. The most popular continuation is 8. Bxe7 (75% of games).
Engine evaluation: +0.17 (Stockfish, depth 60; best line 8. Bxe7 Qxe7 9. Rc1 c6 10. Bd3 Nxc3)
- ECO
- D56
- Moves
- 14 plies
- FEN
rnbq1rk1/ppp1bpp1/4p2p/3p4/2PPn2B/2N1PN2/PP3PPP/R2QKB1R w KQ - 1 8- PGN
1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Be7 4. Nf3 Nf6 5. Bg5 h6 6. Bh4 O-O 7. e3 Ne4
Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess
Results by rating
| Average rating | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 2000+ | 8 | |
| All | 8 |
Most played moves
| Move | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 8. Bxe7 | 6 (75%) | |
| 8. Bg3 | 2 (25%) |
Master games
113 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 26%, draw 59%, Black 15%). The strongest:
- GM Levon Aronian (2777) – GM Hikaru Nakamura (2776) 1/2-1/2 · 4th Zurich CC Rapid · 2015-02-19
- GM Evgeny Tomashevsky (2701) – GM Hikaru Nakamura (2764) 1/2-1/2 · Baku FIDE Grand Prix 2014 · 2014-10-08
- GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (2735) – GM Daniel Fridman (2637) 1/2-1/2 · 6th Rabat Blitz Marathon · 2015-05-16
- GM Loek Van Wely (2691) – GM Daniel Fridman (2668) 1/2-1/2 · Remco Heite Inv Blitz Playoff · 2012-11-18
- GM Loek Van Wely (2691) – GM Daniel Fridman (2668) 1-0 · Remco Heite Inv · 2012-11-16
Search all games of the Queen's Gambit Declined: Lasker Defense and its sub-variations
Highest-rated Lichess games
- Vacumator (2332) – goranchess1 (2418) 0-1 · 2026-09-05 · 180 + 0s
- vikica23 (2332) – RubinsteinZR (2409) 0-1 · 2026-09-05 · 180 + 2s
- tantan100 (2356) – googlecoms (2325) 1-0 · 2026-09-07 · 600 + 0s
Comes from
Queen's Gambit Declined: Charousek Variation 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Be7
Continuations
- Queen's Gambit Declined: Lasker Defense, Main Line D57 · 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Be7 4. Nf3 Nf6 5. Bg5 h6 6. Bh4 O-O 7. e3 Ne4 8. Bxe7 Qxe7 9. cxd5 Nxc3 10. bxc3
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.