Queen's Gambit Declined (2. c4 e6)

1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6

The Queen's Gambit Declined is a chess opening classified as ECO D30, reached after 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6. White is to move. 8 named lines continue from this position.

In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 127,755 times by this move order. White won 51%, 5% were drawn and Black won 44%. The most popular continuation is 3. Nc3 (58% of games).

Engine evaluation: +0.17 (Stockfish, depth 60; best line 3. Nc3 c6 4. e3 Nf6 5. Nf3 Nbd7)

ECO: D30
Moves: 4 plies
FEN: rnbqkbnr/ppp2ppp/4p3/3p4/2PP4/8/PP2PPPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 0 3
PGN: 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6

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

Results by rating

Average rating	Games	White / draw / Black
0-1499	30,926	52%45%
1500-1999	70,383	51%44%
2000+	26,446	49%43%
All	127,755	51%44%

Most played moves

Move	Games	White / draw / Black
3. Nc3 Queen's Knight Variation	74,226 (58%)	51%44%
3. Nf3	23,889 (19%)	51%44%
3. cxd5	10,237 (8%)	50%45%
3. e3	9,240 (7%)	50%45%
3. a3	3,962 (3%)	50%45%
3. Bf4	1,786 (1%)	49%46%
3. c5	1,783 (1%)	49%47%
3. g3	1,714 (1%)	52%42%

Master games

40,168 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 44%, draw 27%, Black 29%). The strongest:

LCZero 0.31-dag-e429eeb-BT3-2790000 (3642) – Stockfish dev-20231010-00263636 (3673) 1/2-1/2 · TCEC 25 Superfinal 2023 · 2023-10-12
Stockfish dev-20231010-00263636 (3673) – LCZero 0.31-dag-e429eeb-BT3-2790000 (3642) 1-0 · TCEC 25 Superfinal 2023 · 2023-10-12
Stockfish2021061923 (3632) – ScorpioNN3.0.13 (3483) 1/2-1/2 · TCEC 21 Premier 2021 · 2021-06-25
ScorpioNN3.0.13 (3483) – Stockfish2021061923 (3632) 1/2-1/2 · TCEC 21 Premier 2021 · 2021-06-23
ScorpioNN 3.0.8.3 (3448) – AllieStein v0.8-120f959_net-15.0 (3536) 1/2-1/2 · TCEC 19 Premier 2020 · 2020-09-24

Search all games of the Queen's Gambit Declined and its sub-variations

Highest-rated Lichess games

GM sillyMASTER (2841) – GM cutemouse83 (2946) 0-1 · 2026-09-02 · 180 + 0s
GM cutemouse83 (2942) – feeblad (2834) 1/2-1/2 · 2026-09-06 · 180 + 0s
GM tjychess (2788) – GM cutemouse83 (2978) 1/2-1/2 · 2026-09-01 · 180 + 0s

Comes from

Queen's Gambit 1. d4 d5 2. c4

Continuations

Queen's Gambit Declined: Queen's Knight Variation D31 · 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3
Queen's Gambit Declined: Tarrasch Defense, Pseudo-Tarrasch D30 · 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 c5
Queen's Gambit Accepted (4… dxc4 5. e4) D24 · 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 dxc4 5. e4
Queen's Gambit Accepted (4… dxc4 5. Bg5) D24 · 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 dxc4 5. Bg5
Queen's Gambit Declined: Spielmann Variation D30 · 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. e3 c6 5. Nbd2 g6
Queen's Gambit Declined (6. e3 O-O) D53 · 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 Nc6 5. Bg5 Be7 6. e3 O-O
Queen's Gambit Declined: Semi-Slav, Junge Variation D31 · 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 c6 4. Nc3 dxc4 5. a4 Bb4 6. e3 b5 7. Bd2 Qb6
Queen's Gambit Declined: Orthodox Defense, Classical Variation (12… e5 13. Qb1) D68 · 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 Be7 5. Bg5 O-O 6. e3 Nbd7 7. Rc1 c6 8. Bd3 dxc4 9. Bxc4 Nd5 10. Bxe7 Qxe7 11. O-O Nxc3 12. Rxc3 e5 13. Qb1

More Queen's Gambit Declined lines (all)

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.