Queen's Gambit Declined: Orthodox Defense, Rubinstein Attack (8… a6 9. cxd5)

1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. c4 e6 4. Nc3 Be7 5. Bg5 O-O 6. e3 Nbd7 7. Rc1 c6 8. Qc2 a6 9. cxd5

The Queen's Gambit Declined: Orthodox Defense, Rubinstein Attack is a chess opening classified as ECO D65, reached after 1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. c4 e6 4. Nc3 Be7 5. Bg5 O-O 6. e3 Nbd7 7. Rc1 c6 8. Qc2 a6 9. cxd5. It is a line of the Queen's Gambit Declined. Black is to move. 1 named line continues from this position.

This exact move order didn't appear in our sample of 12.6 million Lichess games: it's a rare line.

Engine evaluation: +0.17 (Stockfish, depth 36; best line 9… cxd5 10. Bd3 h6 11. Bf4 b5 12. O-O)

ECO

D65

Moves

17 plies

FEN

r1bq1rk1/1p1nbppp/p1p1pn2/3P2B1/3P4/2N1PN2/PPQ2PPP/2R1KB1R b K - 0 9

PGN

1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. c4 e6 4. Nc3 Be7 5. Bg5 O-O 6. e3 Nbd7 7. Rc1 c6 8. Qc2 a6 9. cxd5

Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess

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.