A40Opening
Queen's Pawn Game
1. d4
Black to move
- Legal moves
- 20
- Games in the next 4 moves
- 361,790
- Different positions among them
- 127,851
- Named lines from here
- 1,338
The other great first move. The d-pawn is protected by the queen, so 1. d4 tends to lead to slower, more strategic games than 1. e4; the Queen’s Gambit, the Indian defences and the Dutch all start here.
It is reached after a single move: 1. d4.
Black is to move and has 20 legal moves. Over the next four moves — two for each side — the game can branch into 361,790 different games. Those games reach 127,851 different positions: most positions can be reached in more than one way, 2.8 on average.
The Lichess opening list names 1,338 further lines after this position, such as Indian Defense (1... Nf6) and Dutch Defense (1... f5).

Move by move
- 1. d4Queen's Pawn Game
Named lines from here
- Indian DefenseA451... Nf6
- Dutch DefenseA801... f5
- Benoni Defense, Old BenoniA431... c5
- Englund GambitA401... e5
- Queen's Pawn GameD001... d5
- Modern DefenseA401... g6
- Horwitz DefenseA401... e6
- Queen's Pawn GameA411... d6
- Mikenas DefenseA401... Nc6
- English DefenseA401... b6
- Polish DefenseA401... b5
- Australian DefenseA401... Na6
- Borg Defense, Borg GambitA401... g5
- Anglo-Slav OpeningA401... c6 2. c4 d6
Famous games through this position
Botvinnik's Bishop SacrificeBotvinnik – Capablanca, AVRO 1938, move 1Botvinnik beats former world champion Capablanca with a bishop sacrifice on move 30.
The Immortal Zugzwang GameSämisch – Nimzowitsch, Copenhagen 1923, move 1White still has plenty of pieces, but every move he could make loses.
Rubinstein's ImmortalRotlewi – Rubinstein, Łódź 1907, move 1Rubinstein sacrifices his queen; then his bishops and rooks close in on White's king.
The Gold Coins GameLevitsky – Marshall, Breslau 1912, move 1Marshall's last move, his queen to g3, was so beautiful that, the story goes, spectators showered the board with gold coins.
The King HuntEd. Lasker – Thomas, London 1912, move 1After a queen sacrifice Black's king is driven from h7 all the way to g1 and mated there.
Related openings
- King's Pawn GameB001. e4
- English OpeningA101. c4
- Zukertort OpeningA041. Nf3
- Bird OpeningA021. f4
- Nimzo-Larsen AttackA011. b3
- Hungarian OpeningA001. g3
- Polish OpeningA001. b4
- Van Geet OpeningA001. Nc3
- Van't Kruijs OpeningA001. e3
- Mieses OpeningA001. d3
FEN
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