Wade Defense
The Wade Defense is 1.d4 d6 2.Nf3 Bg4: Black pins the knight on f3 at once. Read the guide
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Statistics from Lichess
439,357 games: White 49.6% / Draw 6.3% / Black 44.1%
| Next move | Games | White / Draw / BlackW / D / B |
|---|---|---|
| 82,20082K | ||
| 72,15372K | ||
| 70,77771K | ||
| 53,32853K | ||
| 49,79350K | ||
| 37,84438K | ||
| 20,64521K | ||
| 16,50317K |
Rated Lichess games between players rated 1600 to 2500, from the Lichess opening explorer, updated Oct 21, 2026
Engine evaluation
+0.94 White is better
Best play: 3. e4 g6 4. Nc3 Bg7 5. Be3 Nd7 6. h3 Bxf3 7. Qxf3 e5
Stockfish 19, depth 30, after the line's last move. Scores are in pawns, from White's side.
By rating
The stronger the players, the better this line does for Black: Black scores 46% under 1400, 49% at 2200 and up and 45% in master games (wins plus half the draws).
| Players | Games | White / Draw / BlackW / D / B |
|---|---|---|
| Under 1400 | 106K | |
| 1400–1799 | 200K | |
| 1800–2199 | 213K | |
| 2200 and up | 119K | |
| Masters, over the board | 4,889 |
Master games
- Li Chao2 – Svidler, P.
- Riazantsev, A. – Grischuk, A.
- Kasparov, G. – Anand, V.
- Carlsen, M. – Milos, G.
- Le Quang Liem – Mamedyarov, S.
Rated blitz, rapid and classical Lichess games by rating band, and over-the-board games of players rated 2200+ from the Lichess masters database, updated Sep 27, 2026
Description
The Wade Defense is 1.d4 d6 2.Nf3 Bg4: Black pins the knight on f3 at once. It can also arise from 1.Nf3 d6 2.d4 Bg4. The ECO code is A41.
Origins
The opening is named after the British International Master Bob Wade (1921–2008), originally from New Zealand, who played it for over 30 years. It was played even earlier, in 1938, by Rudolf Spielmann, and in the 1960s by Leonid Stein and Lubomir Kavalek among others.
Several grandmasters have played it often, including Julian Hodgson, Michael Adams, Vlastimil Jansa and Tony Miles. Jouni Yrjölä and Jussi Tella, in their book An Explosive Chess Opening Repertoire for Black, call Hodgson "the towering figure of the line", who popularised it with many dynamic performances, and they name the opening the "Hodgson Variation" in his honour. They also credit Miles, Adams, Hickl and Jansa with developing its theory.
The idea
In the two games below Black followed up with ...Nd7 and then ...c5 or ...e5, and in one of them gave up the bishop for the knight on f3 at once.
Main lines
Two games show typical play after 3.c4 Nd7.
- Topalov–Adams, Dortmund 1996: 3.c4 Nd7 4.e4 Bxf3 5.Qxf3 g6 6.Nc3 Bg7 7.Qd1 c5 8.d5 Bxc3+ 9.bxc3. Black gave up both bishops for knights, castled queenside and won.
- Vera–Gulko, Lucerne 1993: 3.c4 Nd7 4.Nc3 e5 5.e3 c6 6.h3 Bh5 7.Be2 Be7 8.O-O f5, and Black went on to win.
Related lines on this site are 1.Nf3 d6 2.e4 Bg4, the Zukertort Opening: Wade Defense, and 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 d6, the Wade-Tartakower Defense.
The numbers
On Lichess White wins 49.6% of the 440,000 games and Black 44.1%. Below 2200 White is ahead by 6 to 9 points: 51.3% against 44.1% under 1400 and 52.1% against 43.4% between 1400 and 1799. From 2200 up it is close, 46.5% against 44.9%. In 4,889 master games over the board White won 36.4%, Black 26.1%, and 37.5% were drawn.
Suggest an improvement or report a mistake
How to play against the Wade Defense
3. e4 scores best for White: 54.0%, with White winning 51.1% and Black 43.0% of 71K games. The most played, 3. c4, scores 53.8% in 82K games, and 3. Bf4 scores lowest: 51.0%. Stockfish's first choice is also 3. e4.
Main answers: those played in at least 5% of these games. Score: White's wins plus half the draws, in rated Lichess games between players rated 1600 to 2500. How to play against other popular openings
Popularity by year
The Wade Defense has lost ground since 2016: 0.017% of Lichess games in 2025, down from 0.021%.
Numbers by year
| Year | Share of games | Games |
|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 0.021% | 7,486 |
| 2017 | 0.023% | 12,497 |
| 2018 | 0.021% | 16,613 |
| 2019 | 0.018% | 23,053 |
| 2020 | 0.018% | 52,844 |
| 2021 | 0.016% | 60,810 |
| 2022 | 0.016% | 60,439 |
| 2023 | 0.016% | 60,780 |
| 2024 | 0.017% | 60,953 |
| 2025 | 0.017% | 57,849 |
| 2026 (Jan–Apr) | 0.017% | 18,354 |
Share of rated Lichess games between players rated 1600 to 2500 (blitz, rapid and classical) that reach this position, by year; 2026: January to April. Which openings are rising and falling
Variations (1)
Sources
- History and theory: adapted from the Wikipedia article Wade Defence, version of 6 October 2026, under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Results: Lichess opening explorer, figures collected from September to November 2026.
Cite this page
Caissa Codex. “Wade Defense (A41)”. Lichess data as of 21 Oct 2026. https://chesscodex.org/openings/wade-defense