Queen's Pawn Game: Chigorin Variation, Irish Gambit
1. d4 d5 2. Nc3 c5
The Queen's Pawn Game: Chigorin Variation, Irish Gambit is a chess opening classified as ECO D00, reached after 1. d4 d5 2. Nc3 c5. It is a line of the Queen's Pawn Game. White is to move.
In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 3,618 times by this move order. White won 49%, 3% were drawn and Black won 48%. The most popular continuation is 3. Bf4 (31% of games).
Engine evaluation: +0.15 (Stockfish, depth 55; best line 3. e4 dxe4 4. d5 Nf6 5. Nge2 e6)
- ECO
- D00
- Moves
- 4 plies
- FEN
rnbqkbnr/pp2pppp/8/2pp4/3P4/2N5/PPP1PPPP/R1BQKBNR w KQkq - 0 3- PGN
1. d4 d5 2. Nc3 c5
Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess
Results by rating
| Average rating | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 0-1499 | 1,514 | |
| 1500-1999 | 1,751 | |
| 2000+ | 353 | |
| All | 3,618 |
Most played moves
| Move | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 3. Bf4 | 1,132 (31%) | |
| 3. dxc5 | 1,042 (29%) | |
| 3. e4 | 591 (16%) | |
| 3. Nf3 | 386 (11%) | |
| 3. e3 | 326 (9%) | |
| 3. Be3 | 27 (1%) | |
| 3. Bg5 | 22 (1%) | |
| 3. f3 | 19 (1%) |
Master games
318 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 44%, draw 17%, Black 39%). The strongest:
- GM Alireza Firouzja (2749) – GM Magnus Carlsen (2862) 1/2-1/2 · Magnus-Alireza 27th Feb · 2021-02-27
- GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (2718) – GM Viswanathan Anand (2739) 1-0 · TechM GCL 2026 · 2026-09-09
- GM Hans Moke Niemann (2642) – GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda (2760) 1-0 · Airthings Masters Prelim · 2022-02-19
- GM Matthias Bluebaum (2647) – GM Constantin Lupulescu (2656) 1/2-1/2 · GER-ROU Online 2020 · 2020-04-25
- GM Hans Moke Niemann (2637) – GM Kirill Shevchenko (2652) 0-1 · chess.com Junior Speed · 2022-05-12
Search all games of the Queen's Pawn Game: Chigorin Variation, Irish Gambit and its sub-variations
Highest-rated Lichess games
- Alisherkaaaa (2669) – TheorySpeedrun (2679) 1-0 · 2026-09-04 · 180 + 0s
- Nrvnk90 (2613) – TheorySpeedrun (2656) 0-1 · 2026-09-04 · 180 + 0s
- siete7729 (2559) – GoldenFirebird (2647) 0-1 · 2026-09-05 · 180 + 0s
Comes from
Queen's Pawn Game: Chigorin Variation (1… d5 2. Nc3) 1. d4 d5 2. Nc3
More Queen's Pawn Game lines (all)
- Queen's Pawn Game (1. d4) A40
- Queen's Pawn Game: Anglo-Slav Opening A40
- Queen's Pawn Game: Modern Defense A40
- Queen's Pawn Game (1. d4 d6) A41
- Queen's Pawn Game: Rossolimo Variation A41
- Queen's Pawn Game: Liedmann Gambit A43
- Queen's Pawn Game: Chigorin Variation (2. Nc3 d5) A45
- Queen's Pawn Game: Veresov, Richter Attack A45
- Queen's Pawn Game: Torre Attack, Breyer Variation A46
- Queen's Pawn Game: Veresov Attack, Classical Defense A46
- Queen's Pawn Game: Barry Attack (3… d5 4. Bf4) A48
- Queen's Pawn Game: Barry Attack (4. Bf4 Bg7) A48
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.