Queen's Gambit Declined: Ragozin Defense, Alekhine Variation
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. Nc3 Bb4 5. Qa4+
The Queen's Gambit Declined: Ragozin Defense, Alekhine Variation is a chess opening classified as ECO D38, reached after 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. Nc3 Bb4 5. Qa4+. It is a line of the Queen's Gambit Declined. Black is to move.
In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 146 times by this move order. White won 55%, 5% were drawn and Black won 40%. The most popular continuation is 5… Nc6 (99% of games).
Engine evaluation: +0.13 (Stockfish, depth 50; best line 5… Nc6 6. e3 O-O 7. Qc2 Re8 8. Bd2)
- ECO
- D38
- Moves
- 9 plies
- FEN
rnbqk2r/ppp2ppp/4pn2/3p4/QbPP4/2N2N2/PP2PPPP/R1B1KB1R b KQkq - 3 5- PGN
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. Nc3 Bb4 5. Qa4+
Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess
Results by rating
| Average rating | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 0-1499 | 7 | |
| 1500-1999 | 29 | |
| 2000+ | 110 | |
| All | 146 |
Most played moves
| Move | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 5… Nc6 | 145 (99%) | |
| 5… c6 | 1 (1%) |
Master games
2,212 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 40%, draw 32%, Black 28%). The strongest:
- GM Hikaru Nakamura (2787) – GM Magnus Carlsen (2855) 1-0 · GCT Rapid YourNextMove · 2016-06-17
- GM Magnus Carlsen (2862) – GM So, W. (2770) 1-0 · Skilling Open KO 2020 · 2020-11-29
- GM Sergey Karjakin (2773) – GM Magnus Carlsen (2855) 1/2-1/2 · 9th Masters Final 2016 · 2016-07-21
- GM Magnus Carlsen (2863) – GM Viswanathan Anand (2753) 1/2-1/2 · Legends of Chess Prelim · 2020-07-22
- GM Levon Aronian (2781) – GM Fabiano Caruana (2820) 1/2-1/2 · GCT Rapid Paris 2021 · 2021-06-18
Highest-rated Lichess games
- July16Q (2662) – GM Dragso (2754) 1-0 · 2026-09-04 · 180 + 0s
- Juan_Delasala (2754) – atsaynm (2636) 0-1 · 2026-09-03 · 180 + 0s
- Abdallah1990 (2514) – sapphire_phoenix (2823) 0-1 · 2026-09-01 · 180 + 0s
Comes from
Queen's Gambit Declined: Ragozin Defense 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. Nc3 Bb4
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.