Queen's Pawn Game: Zukertort Variation

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Overview

Queen's Pawn Game: Zukertort Variation is a variation within the Closed & Semi-Closed Games family, indexed as ECO D02.

The Closed & Semi-Closed Games group covers closed and semi-closed games — 1.d4 systems characterised by long strategic manoeuvring rather than early tactics.

It begins with 3 plies and takes 1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 to reach the canonical position.

It is a direct variation of Queen's Pawn Game.

It is the root of 6 named variations, with Queen's Gambit Declined: Baltic Defense, Pseudo-Slav, Queen's Pawn Game: Chigorin Variation, Queen's Pawn Game: Krause Variation, and others among the most studied.

Together the deeper variations number 29 across the full subtree.

Step through the moves on the interactive board below, review the live Lichess statistics, or play this position against Stockfish at one of six difficulty levels.

ECO code: D02
Group: Closed & Semi-Closed Games (D)
Plies: 3
Parent: Queen's Pawn Game
Direct variations: 6
Total in subtree: 29

This overview is generated automatically from the opening's metadata. Know this line well? Write a description — submissions are reviewed before publishing.

Statistics from Lichess

61,296,521 games · White 51.1% / Draw 5.6% / Black 43.3%

Moves	Games	W / D / B
Nf6	21,174,482
e6	10,412,555
Nc6	8,994,210
c6	5,904,433
Bf5	5,755,887
c5	3,825,577
Bg4	2,823,557
g6	834,195

Source: Lichess Opening Explorer · cached 2026-09-26 00:55:18

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Variations (6)

Show all 29 sub-variations (full subtree)

Overview

Statistics from Lichess

Variations (6)

Related variations at the same level