Queen's Pawn Game (1. d4 d6)

1. d4 d6

The Queen's Pawn Game is a chess opening classified as ECO A41, reached after 1. d4 d6. White is to move. 3 named lines continue from this position.

In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 113,687 times by this move order. White won 49%, 5% were drawn and Black won 46%. The most popular continuation is 2. c4 (29% of games).

Engine evaluation: +0.60 (Stockfish, depth 60; best line 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. c4 g6 4. Nc3 Bg7)

ECO: A41
Moves: 2 plies
FEN: rnbqkbnr/ppp1pppp/3p4/8/3P4/8/PPP1PPPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 0 2
PGN: 1. d4 d6

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

Results by rating

Average rating	Games	White / draw / Black
0-1499	40,447	50%46%
1500-1999	54,878	48%47%
2000+	18,362	49%45%
All	113,687	49%46%

Most played moves

Move	Games	White / draw / Black
2. c4 Old Indian Defense (1… d6 2. c4)	33,355 (29%)	49%46%
2. Bf4	20,468 (18%)	49%46%
2. Nf3	18,568 (16%)	50%45%
2. e4	18,367 (16%)	50%46%
2. e3	8,156 (7%)	47%49%
2. Nc3	7,010 (6%)	50%46%
2. Bg5	1,787 (2%)	52%44%
2. d5	1,518 (1%)	47%49%

Master games

19,237 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 42%, draw 20%, Black 38%). The strongest:

AllieStein v0.5_timefix-n14.0 (3936) – Fire 021819 (3752) 1-0 · TCEC 20 Premier 2020 · 2020-03-29
Fire 021819 (3752) – AllieStein v0.5_timefix-n14.0 (3936) 1/2-1/2 · TCEC 20 Premier 2020 · 2020-03-25
Ethereal 12.01 (3810) – ScorpioNN 3.0.7.1 (3812) 1-0 · TCEC 20 Premier 2020 · 2020-03-29
ScorpioNN 3.0.7.1 (3812) – Ethereal 12.01 (3810) 1/2-1/2 · TCEC 20 Premier 2020 · 2020-03-25
Stockfish dev-20260228-702d4b8c (3796) – Obsidian dev-16.15 (3714) 1/2-1/2 · TCEC 29 Premier 2026 · 2026-03-15

Search all games of the Queen's Pawn Game and its sub-variations

Highest-rated Lichess games

winx_m (2937) – GM Chewbacca18 (2804) 1-0 · 2026-09-02 · 180 + 0s
FM juancruzariasTDF (2753) – GM gmbrewchess (2987) 0-1 · 2026-09-03 · 180 + 0s
ScaryIndianJunior (2813) – GM Niksss2023 (2819) 1-0 · 2026-09-03 · 180 + 0s

Comes from

Queen's Pawn Game (1. d4) 1. d4

Continuations

Old Indian Defense (1… d6 2. c4) A41 · 1. d4 d6 2. c4
Queen's Pawn Game: Rossolimo Variation A41 · 1. d4 d6 2. Nf3 g6
Wade Defense A41 · 1. d4 d6 2. Nf3 Bg4

More Queen's Pawn Game 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.