Queen's Gambit: Complete Guide

The Queen's Gambit is the opening 1. d4 d5 2. c4, where White sets a second pawn beside Black's d-pawn and invites a capture that would pull it off the center. The c4-pawn looks like a gift, but a black pawn that lands on c4 is usually won back within a few moves, most often by the bishop from f1, which is why so many club players take it and so few keep it. It is also the most practical way to meet 1...d5. On lichess below 1600, about half of all opponents answer 1. d4 with 1...d5, and from there 2. c4 is both White's most popular move, played in about one game in three, and the best scoring one, slightly ahead of the London System's 2. Bf4.

The hard part is not 2. c4 but what comes back. Black has four common answers and four rarer ones, and each has its own name. 2...dxc4 gives the Queen's Gambit Accepted, 2...e6 the Queen's Gambit Declined, 2...Nf6 the Marshall Defense and 2...c6 the Slav Defense. Behind them come the Chigorin Defense (2...Nc6), the Albin Countergambit (2...e5), the Baltic Defense (2...Bf5) and the Symmetrical Defense (2...c5). This trainer is a complete White repertoire against all of them except 2...dxc4, which has its own Queen's Gambit Accepted course, so the two together cover every reply you will meet after 2. c4.

Every line starts with 1. d4 d5 2. c4, and White's third move follows Black's second. The course keeps the choices few. Against 2...e6 it plays 3. Nc3, which lets one setup handle the main line with 3...Nf6 as well as 3...Bb4, 3...c5 and 3...c6; 3. Nf3 is a perfectly good alternative, it just leads to different branches. Against the Slav it again plays 3. Nc3 and meets 3...Nf6 with the quiet 4. e3. Against 2...Nf6 it takes at once with 3. cxd5 and follows with 4. e4, because at club level 3. cxd5 scores about three percentage points better than 3. Nc3. Against the Chigorin it plays 3. Nc3 and answers ...dxc4 with 4. d5, against the Albin it takes the e-pawn and brings the king's knight out before anything else, and against 2...Bf5 and 2...c5 it opens the c-file with 3. cxd5. Whenever Black captures on c4 and a line would run into Queen's Gambit Accepted territory, the course stops and points you to that course instead of teaching the same moves twice.

If you meet the Queen's Gambit as Black, the club numbers favor the patient replies. Below 1600, White's score is lowest, 53 to 54 percent, against the Slav (2...c6), the Albin (2...e5), the Declined (2...e6) and the Baltic (2...Bf5), and highest, over 57 percent, against 2...dxc4, mostly because players who take the pawn try to keep it and fall behind in development. Whatever you choose, get your light-squared bishop sorted out, because that is where the traps are: an early ...Bf5 leaves b7 loose to Qb3, and a bishop that pins on b4 can be trapped by a3, b4 and c5 if it retreats to a5 instead of taking on c3. Do not grab the d5-pawn back with your queen too early, and in the Declined keep the d5-pawn protected, since the Tarrasch structure hands it to a white queen after one careless recapture. Black has a trap of its own, too: after 4. cxd5 exd5 5. Bg5 Nbd7 the d5-pawn looks free, 6. Nxd5 is White's most played move at club level, and it loses a piece.

The Queen's Gambit is among the oldest openings still in everyday use: the Göttingen manuscript, written around 1490, already records it. It became the main battleground of 1. d4 chess around the turn of the twentieth century, when positional players showed how much pressure the c4 lever puts on Black's center. Black's replies picked up their names over the same decades. The Chigorin Defense is named after the Russian master Mikhail Chigorin, the Albin Countergambit after Adolf Albin, who first tried it on Emanuel Lasker at New York 1893, and the Slav after the many players from Slavic countries who developed it. In the ECO classification it spans D06 to D69, with D10 to D19 for the Slav and D20 to D29 for the Accepted. The 1983 novel by Walter Tevis and the 2020 Netflix series took their title from the opening, and the series set off a wave of new players looking it up.

What is the Queen's Gambit in chess?

It is the opening 1. d4 d5 2. c4. With its second move White offers a pawn that looks free, hoping Black's d-pawn will leave the middle to take it. Calling it a gambit oversells the risk: the pawn Black can grab on c4 rarely stays won. Black's main answers are 2...dxc4, the Accepted; 2...e6, the Declined; 2...c6, the Slav Defense; and 2...Nf6, the Marshall Defense, with four rarer tries behind them. This course teaches White's answer to all of them except 2...dxc4, which has its own course.

Is the Queen's Gambit good for beginners?

Yes, as long as you learn it as a set of plans rather than a list of moves. After 1. d4 d5 it is the most played and best scoring second move below 1600, and White scores between 53% and 58% against every Black reply at that level. The traps are short and repeatable: Qb3 against an early ...Bf5, the a3, b4, c5 pawn wave against a bishop on a5, and Qxd5 against a loose d5-pawn. The price is breadth, since you need an answer to eight different second moves, which is exactly what the chapters are organized around.

What is the best response to the Queen's Gambit?

At club level, the patient ones. Below 1600 on lichess, White's score is lowest, 53 to 54 percent, against the Slav (2...c6), the Albin (2...e5), the Declined (2...e6) and the Baltic (2...Bf5), and highest, over 57 percent, against 2...dxc4, where players who take the pawn often cling to it and fall behind. At master level the Declined, the Slav and the Accepted are all fully sound. If you play White, this course covers the Declined, the Slav and the rest; the Queen's Gambit Accepted course covers 2...dxc4.

How do you play against the Slav Defense as White?

This course meets 2...c6 with 3. Nc3 and, after 3...Nf6, the calm 4. e3, so your bishop can recapture on c4 if Black ever takes there. The key idea is Qb3: the Slav wants to develop its bishop to f5, and once that bishop leaves c8, the b7-pawn is loose. After 4...Bf5 5. cxd5 cxd5 6. Qb3, the queen hits b7 and d5 together, and in the course line the d5-pawn falls; after 3...Bf5 4. Qb3 the same idea wins a pawn a move earlier. If Black plays ...e6 instead, you are in Semi-Slav or Triangle territory, where the course develops quietly or strikes with 4. e4.

Should I play the Queen's Gambit or the London System?

Both are good, and the club numbers are close: after 1. d4 d5, 2. c4 scores a little better than 2. Bf4 below 1600 and is played more often. The London gives you one setup against everything, while the Queen's Gambit asks for more study in return for more central pressure, more open positions and more chances to win material early. If you like a fixed plan, pick the London; if you want Black to face a question on move two, pick the Queen's Gambit.

Is the Queen's Gambit from the Netflix show a real opening?

Yes. The series, and the 1983 Walter Tevis novel it adapts, are named after the opening, 1. d4 d5 2. c4, which has been played for more than five centuries and remains one of the most common openings at every level.