Queen's GambitD06 – D69
2.c4 attacks d5 a second time, and Black has three honest replies: hold the pawn with …e6 or …c6, take it, or counter-attack with …c5. Taking is the one to understand first: 2…dxc4 cannot keep the pawn, because 3.e3 and 4.Bxc4 win it back while Black has spent a move on a pawn that was never staying. So most players decline, and then the game is about the c8-bishop — Black's problem piece in every Queen's Gambit Declined, shut in by its own pawn on e6. White's plan is nearly always the same: finish development, play Rc1 and cxd5 at the right moment, and use the half-open c-file and the queenside majority. This is a positional opening with very little to memorise and a great deal to understand — which is why it has been the World Championship's default opening for a hundred years.
Played by
- Anatoly Karpov — the model of the squeezing, low-risk style the Queen's Gambit is built for
- Vladimir Kramnik — his positional handling of 1.d4 d5 2.c4 set the standard for a generation
Model game
Fischer – Spassky, World Championship, Reykjavik 1972
Next: d4 — yours
