Queen's Pawn Game: Modern Defense

1. d4 g6

Queen's Pawn Game: Modern Defense after 1. d4 g6 87654321abcdefgh

The Queen's Pawn Game: Modern Defense is a chess opening classified as ECO A40, reached after 1. d4 g6. It is a line of the Queen's Pawn Game. White is to move. 18 named lines continue from this position.

In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 129,479 times by this move order. White won 49%, 4% were drawn and Black won 47%. The most popular continuation is 2. c4 (29% of games).

Engine evaluation: +0.57 (Stockfish, depth 57; best line 2. e4 Bg7 3. Nc3 d5 4. exd5 Nf6)

ECO
A40
Moves
2 plies
FEN
rnbqkbnr/pppppp1p/6p1/8/3P4/8/PPP1PPPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 0 2
PGN
1. d4 g6

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

Results by rating

Average ratingGamesWhite / draw / Black
0-149941,31149%48%
1500-199971,39149%46%
2000+16,77749%45%
All129,47949%47%

Most played moves

MoveGamesWhite / draw / Black
2. c437,052 (29%)49%46%
2. Bf423,801 (18%)49%47%
2. e421,915 (17%)49%47%
2. Nf319,124 (15%)50%45%
2. e39,260 (7%)46%49%
2. Nc38,383 (6%)50%46%
2. c32,151 (2%)49%46%
2. Bg52,115 (2%)50%46%

Master games

27,472 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 40%, draw 19%, Black 41%). The strongest:

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

Highest-rated Lichess games

Comes from

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

Continuations

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.