About this opening
Queen's Gambit Declined: Exchange Variation, Positional Variation is an opening in the Encyclopedia of Chess Openings,
classified under code D35. ECO group D (D00–D99)
covers closed games and semi-closed games beginning 1.d4 d5, covering the Queen's Gambit, Slav, Grünfeld and related queen-pawn structures. This particular variation is reached
after 9 half-moves from the
starting position, with the move sequence 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 d5 4. cxd5 exd5 5. Bg5.
It belongs to the Queen's Gambit Declined family.
Within that family this is a level-2 branch (the Exchange Variation → Positional Variation line). The immediate parent line is Queen's Gambit Declined: Exchange Variation, transitioned via 5.Bg5.
The opening sequence in prose form: 1.d4 Nf6, 2.c4 e6, 3.Nc3 d5, 4.cxd5 exd5, 5.Bg5. From this position the encyclopaedia records no further canonical continuations — practical play branches into unnamed transpositions or returns to the parent line for alternative ideas.
Use the interactive board above to walk through the moves position-by-position. Click any move in the navigation to step backwards, or use the keyboard arrow keys. For statistical data — how often master-level players have reached this position, White's win-rate, draw frequency, Black's score — see the panel in the right column.
Caissly's coverage of D35 extends through every named sub-variation in this line and across all four locales (English, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian). Where editorial commentary exists for a specific variation it appears as the page body; otherwise the page presents the structural data, board, and statistics as shown here.