Chess Opening Theory/1. d4/1...d5/2. c4/2...e6/3. Nc3

Queen's Gambit Declined
a b c d e f g h 8 8 7 7 6 6 5 5 4 4 3 3 2 2 1 1 a b c d e f g h
Position in Forsyth-Edwards Notation(FEN) rnbqkbnr/ppp2ppp/4p3/3p4/2PP4/2N5/PP2PPPP/R1BQKBNR

Queen's Gambit Declined

3.Nc3

After building a pawn center with his first two moves, White begins the development of his minor pieces with 3.Nc3. On c3, the knight controls the d5 and e4 squares. White would like to play e4 at some point to gain even more presence in the center, and 3.Nc3 facilitates this break.

White's dark-squared bishop will likely go to g5 after Black plays Nf6, but of course this is not possible immediately because of 3...Qxg5. Moving the bishop to a different square on move 3 would simply lose a tempo if it later went on to g5, so it is best to develop a knight here instead. There are sound systems involving Bf4, but it is not wise to commit to a Bf4 system so early. Thus 3.Nc3 and 3.Nf3 are the most sensible options.

Theory table

For explanation of theory tables see theory table and for notation see algebraic notation.

1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3

	3	4	5	6
Queen's Gambit Declined Semi-Slav	... Nf6	Bg5 Be7	e3 O-O	Nf3 Nbd7	=
Tarrasch Defence	... c5	cxd5 exd5	Nf3 Nc6	g3 Nf6	=
Semi-Slav Defence	... c6	Nf3 Nf6	e3 Nbd7	Bd3 dxc4	=
	... Be7	Nf3 Nf6	Bg5 h6	Bh4 O-O	=
Dutch Stonewall	... f5	Nf3 Nf6	Bf4 c6	e3 Be7	+=

When contributing to this Wikibook, please follow the Conventions for organization.

References

• Batsford Chess Openings 2 (1989, 1994). Garry Kasparov, Raymond Keene. ISBN 0-8050-3409-9.