Queen's Gambit Declined: Orthodox Defense, Pillsbury Variation
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 d5 4. Bg5 Be7 5. e3 O-O 6. Nf3 Nbd7 7. Rc1 b6 8. cxd5 exd5 9. Bd3
The Queen's Gambit Declined: Orthodox Defense, Pillsbury Variation is a chess opening classified as ECO D63, reached after 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 d5 4. Bg5 Be7 5. e3 O-O 6. Nf3 Nbd7 7. Rc1 b6 8. cxd5 exd5 9. Bd3. It is a line of the Queen's Gambit Declined. Black is to move.
This exact move order didn't appear in our sample of 12.6 million Lichess games: it's a rare line.
Engine evaluation: +0.36 (Stockfish, depth 33; best line 9… Bb7 10. O-O Ne4 11. Bf4 Nxc3 12. Rxc3)
- ECO
- D63
- Moves
- 17 plies
- FEN
r1bq1rk1/p1pnbppp/1p3n2/3p2B1/3P4/2NBPN2/PP3PPP/2RQK2R b K - 1 9- PGN
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 d5 4. Bg5 Be7 5. e3 O-O 6. Nf3 Nbd7 7. Rc1 b6 8. cxd5 exd5 9. Bd3
Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess
Master games
5 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 80%, draw 0%, Black 20%). The strongest:
- IM Viktor Dmitrenko (2456) – IM Martin Petrov (2520) 0-1 · Titled Tuesday 21st July · 2020-07-21
- GM Benjamin Finegold (2400) – WFM Owezdurdiyeva, J. (2116) 1-0 · Titled Tue 27th Aug Early · 2024-08-27
- GM Carsten Hoi (2348) – Bjorn Holm Birkisson (2095) 1-0 · 3rd Koge Lang Sommer 2022 · 2022-07-06
- IM Justin Sarkar (2338) – WFM Anna Cramling Bellon (2035) 1-0 · Titled Tuesday 3rd Aug · 2021-08-03
- Michael Ashworth (1884) – James Evans (1527) 1-0 · Glorney Cup 2016 · 2016-07-17
Comes from
Indian Defense: Normal Variation 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4
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.