Queen's Gambit

White offers the c-pawn to lure Black’s d-pawn away from the centre. It is not a true gambit, since Black cannot easily keep the pawn, and it gave its name to the 2020 Netflix series.

It is reached after 3 moves: 1. d4 d5 2. c4.

Black is to move and has 28 legal moves. Over the next four moves — two for each side — the game can branch into 742,744 different games. Those games reach 247,652 different positions: most positions can be reached in more than one way, 3 on average.

The Lichess opening list names 372 further lines after this position, such as Queen's Gambit Declined (2... e6) and Slav Defense (2... c6).

The same moves can be played in 2 different legal orders that all reach this position. For example 1. c4 d5 2. d4, which starts as the English Opening.