Queen's Gambit Declined: Semi-Tarrasch Defense, Main Line
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. Nc3 c5 5. cxd5 Nxd5 6. e3 Nc6 7. Bd3
The Queen's Gambit Declined: Semi-Tarrasch Defense, Main Line is a chess opening classified as ECO D42, reached after 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. Nc3 c5 5. cxd5 Nxd5 6. e3 Nc6 7. Bd3. 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 4 times by this move order. White won 0%, 0% were drawn and Black won 100%. The most popular continuation is 7… Be7 (50% of games).
Engine evaluation: +0.12 (Stockfish, depth 36; best line 7… Be7 8. O-O O-O 9. Nxd5 Qxd5 10. Qc2)
- ECO
- D42
- Moves
- 13 plies
- FEN
r1bqkb1r/pp3ppp/2n1p3/2pn4/3P4/2NBPN2/PP3PPP/R1BQK2R b KQkq - 2 7- PGN
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. Nc3 c5 5. cxd5 Nxd5 6. e3 Nc6 7. Bd3
Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess
Results by rating
| Average rating | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 2000+ | 4 | |
| All | 4 |
Most played moves
| Move | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 7… Be7 | 2 (50%) | |
| 7… cxd4 | 2 (50%) |
Master games
68 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 51%, draw 27%, Black 22%). The strongest:
- GM Levon Aronian (2809) – GM Vladimir Kramnik (2810) 0-1 · FIDE Candidates · 2013-03-29
- GM Alireza Firouzja (2759) – GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (2770) 0-1 · NIC Classic KO 2021 · 2021-04-27
- GM Liren Ding (2778) – GM Xiangzhi Bu (2723) 1-0 · 7th Hainan Danzhou GM · 2016-07-11
- GM Levon Aronian (2758) – GM Hao Wang (2726) 1-0 · FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss · 2019-10-17
- GM Boris Gelfand (2743) – GM Yue Wang (2720) 0-1 · SportAccord Rapid 2014 · 2014-12-11
Highest-rated Lichess games
- July16Q (2616) – JeromePanoSoler (2685) 0-1 · 2026-09-02 · 180 + 0s
- July16Q (2616) – JeromePanoSoler (2675) 0-1 · 2026-09-02 · 180 + 0s
- July16Q (2616) – NM MMM_Zhukovskiy (2673) 0-1 · 2026-09-02 · 180 + 0s
Comes from
Queen's Gambit Declined: Semi-Tarrasch Defense, Pillsbury Variation (5… Nxd5 6. e3) 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. Nc3 c5 5. cxd5 Nxd5 6. e3
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.