Queen's Pawn Game: Symmetrical Variation

1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6

The Queen's Pawn Game: Symmetrical Variation is a chess opening classified as ECO D02, reached after 1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6. It is a line of the Queen's Pawn Game. White is to move. 11 named lines continue from this position.

In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 74,682 times by this move order. White won 50%, 6% were drawn and Black won 44%. The most popular continuation is 3. e3 (26% of games).

Engine evaluation: +0.11 (Stockfish, depth 57; best line 3. c4 e6 4. Nc3 Bb4 5. Bg5 h6)

ECO: D02
Moves: 4 plies
FEN: rnbqkb1r/ppp1pppp/5n2/3p4/3P4/5N2/PPP1PPPP/RNBQKB1R w KQkq - 2 3
PGN: 1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6

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

Results by rating

Average rating	Games	White / draw / Black
0-1499	21,984	51%45%
1500-1999	36,813	50%45%
2000+	15,885	49%43%
All	74,682	50%44%

Most played moves

Move	Games	White / draw / Black
3. e3 Colle System (2… Nf6 3. e3)	19,558 (26%)	50%45%
3. Bf4 London System (2… Nf6 3. Bf4)	19,388 (26%)	50%44%
3. c4	9,787 (13%)	52%42%
3. Bg5 Torre Attack (2… Nf6 3. Bg5)	6,787 (9%)	49%46%
3. g3 Symmetrical Variation, Pseudo-Catalan (2… Nf6 3. g3)	6,746 (9%)	51%43%
3. Nc3	6,607 (9%)	47%48%
3. c3	2,071 (3%)	50%44%
3. h3	1,122 (2%)	52%42%

Master games

24,061 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 43%, draw 28%, Black 29%). The strongest:

ScorpioNN 3.0.7.1 (3812) – Fire 021819 (3752) 1/2-1/2 · TCEC 20 Premier 2020 · 2020-03-31
Fire 021819 (3752) – ScorpioNN 3.0.7.1 (3812) 1/2-1/2 · TCEC 20 Premier 2020 · 2020-03-27
Fire 021819 (3752) – Ethereal 12.01 (3810) 1/2-1/2 · TCEC 20 Premier 2020 · 2020-03-19
Ethereal 12.01 (3810) – Fire 021819 (3752) 1/2-1/2 · TCEC 20 Premier 2020 · 2020-03-17
AllieStein v0.8-120f959_net-15.0 (3536) – LCZero v0.26.2-rc1_J92-100 (3543) 1/2-1/2 · TCEC 19 Premier 2020 · 2020-09-24

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

Highest-rated Lichess games

GM gmbrewchess (2971) – FM juancruzariasTDF (2761) 1-0 · 2026-09-03 · 180 + 0s
GM Fabsid (2797) – GM Peacefulwarrior1996 (2843) 1-0 · 2026-09-04 · 180 + 0s
Americanchampion (2823) – NM Andrey11976 (2805) 1-0 · 2026-09-01 · 180 + 0s

Comes from

Queen's Pawn Game: Zukertort Variation (1… d5 2. Nf3) 1. d4 d5 2. Nf3

Continuations

Queen's Pawn Game: Colle System (2… Nf6 3. e3) D04 · 1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. e3
Queen's Pawn Game: London System (2… Nf6 3. Bf4) D02 · 1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Bf4
Queen's Pawn Game: Symmetrical Variation, Pseudo-Catalan (2… Nf6 3. g3) D02 · 1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. g3
Queen's Pawn Game: Torre Attack (2… Nf6 3. Bg5) D03 · 1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Bg5
Queen's Pawn Game: Zilbermints Countergambit D02 · 1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. c4 b5
Semi-Slav Defense: Stonewall Defense D45 · 1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. c4 c6 4. Nc3 e6 5. e3 Ne4 6. Bd3 f5
Queen's Gambit Declined: Orthodox Defense, Rauzer Variation D60 · 1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. c4 e6 4. Nc3 Be7 5. Bg5 O-O 6. e3 Nbd7 7. Qb3
Semi-Slav Defense: Stoltz Variation (6… Bd6 7. b3) D45 · 1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. c4 c6 4. e3 e6 5. Nc3 Nbd7 6. Qc2 Bd6 7. b3
Queen's Gambit Declined: Orthodox Defense, Rubinstein Attack (8… a6 9. cxd5) D65 · 1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. c4 e6 4. Nc3 Be7 5. Bg5 O-O 6. e3 Nbd7 7. Rc1 c6 8. Qc2 a6 9. cxd5
Queen's Gambit Declined: Orthodox Defense, Janowski Variation D67 · 1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. c4 e6 4. Nc3 Be7 5. Bg5 O-O 6. e3 Nbd7 7. Rc1 c6 8. Bd3 dxc4 9. Bxc4 Nd5 10. h4
Semi-Slav Defense: Meran Variation, Sozin Variation (12… axb5 13. O-O) D49 · 1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. c4 c6 4. Nc3 e6 5. e3 Nbd7 6. Bd3 dxc4 7. Bxc4 b5 8. Bd3 a6 9. e4 c5 10. e5 cxd4 11. Nxb5 Nxe5 12. Nxe5 axb5 13. O-O

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.