Queen's Gambit Declined: Orthodox Defense

The Orthodox Defense, also called the Classical Variation, is the line of the Queen's Gambit Declined in which Black meets 4.Bg5 with ...Be7, ...O-O and ...Nbd7 without playing ...h6. On this site it is listed as 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Nc3 Be7 5.Bg5 O-O 6.e3 Nbd7; it is also reached by 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Be7 5.e3 O-O 6.Nf3 Nbd7, the Modern Variation move order.

Main lines

The most common continuation is 7.Rc1 c6, and then White most often plays 8.Bd3. After 8...dxc4 9.Bxc4 Black has given up the centre and stands somewhat cramped, but has made White lose a tempo by playing Bd3 before Bxc4. White will try to use the extra space to attack, while Black tries to hold White off and strike back at the centre.

Black's alternatives include 9...b5, driving the bishop away and preparing ...Bb7, and 7...a6. For White, 7.Qc2 and 8.Qc2 are the most common deviations, both often played by Akiba Rubinstein. 7.Bd3 is possible, but then Black can play ...c5 without having spent a move on ...c6.

Capablanca's freeing manoeuvre

José Raúl Capablanca introduced the idea 9...Nd5 10.Bxe7 Qxe7 11.O-O Nxc3 12.Rxc3 e5 13.dxe5 Nxe5 14.Nxe5 Qxe5 15.f4 Qe7, which exchanges several pieces in the centre, though Black must still take care after the simplification. The line was once played so often that it has its own ECO code, D69. Because it gives Black little active counterplay, the main line of the Orthodox has become a backwater in modern practice.

The numbers

On Lichess White wins 48.5% of the 864,000 games and Black 44.9%. White's score hardly changes with rating: 49.2% against 47.1% under 1400 and 48.2% against 43.0% from 2200 up. Masters over the board draw more than half their games: in 3,883 games 51.2% were drawn, White won 33.2% and Black 15.6%.