Queen's Gambit

also known as: 2.c4

1. d4 d5 2. c4

Named after

Not a person — the queen's bishop's pawn is offered. And not truly a gambit: Black cannot profitably keep the pawn.

Origin

Appears in the Göttingen manuscript (c. 1490), the oldest surviving work on modern chess — making it one of the oldest recorded openings.

The story

The "gambit" is a polite fiction: after 2...dxc4 White regains the pawn at leisure (3.e3 b5? 4.a4 collapses Black's grip), which is precisely why the opening is eternal — it offers a pawn that cannot be kept, gaining central control either way. It ruled the classical era so completely that the 1927 Capablanca–Alekhine World Championship became a Queen's Gambit monoculture. In 2020 it acquired the strangest credential in opening history: a Netflix drama named after it became the most-watched series in the world and sent chess set sales up tenfold.

Why it matters

The foundational strategic opening: White trades a wing pawn's tension for central dominance. Every serious player must know its Declined, Accepted and Slav responses — they are the grammar of closed-game chess.

Notable games

• Capablanca–Alekhine WCh 1927
• Kasparov–Karpov WCh matches (QGD battles, 1984–87)