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Queen's Indian Defense

Moves

Black scores

47.8%

Loses more
Loses moreEvenWins more

44.6% won6.4% drawn49.0% lost

Theory 46.1% · Stockfish +0.4

Every level and clock · 2.1M games

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
h8
g
f
e
d
c
b
a
3...b6
Analyze this line move by move
Your levelnot setDrag to yours ↔
<100010001200140016001800200022002500+

Win rate by rating

Black’s score falls away as the rating rises.

RatingScore against evenScoreWonGames
49.8%48.7%3.7K
47.8%46.4%15K
48.2%46.6%47K
48.2%46.4%117K
48.5%46.4%225K
48.7%46.1%393K
48.5%45.4%558K
47.3%43.7%571K
44.2%37.3%172K

Every clock · Tap a row to set your level.

What does White play next?

White's most played reply is 4.Nc3, the Kasparov Variation.

Is the Queen's Indian Defense good?

Not for Black, across every level and clock.

Everyone47.8
Stockfish46.1

Stockfish at depth 22 · +0.4 for White

Floor 47.8 is the worst score you would still get, 90% confident.

Among the families

38th of 65 families Black can choose

Where it wins · rating × clock

<100010001200140016001800200022002500+Every levelUltraBulletBulletBlitzRapidClassical
Best 50.8% · 1000–1199 rapidWorst 39.9% · 2500+ rapid

Faint, hatched: few games, never the best or worst. –: too few to score. Tap a cell to set your level and clock.

Average game length

How do you score in your own openings?

Leaks reads your recent games and lists the openings you score worst in.

See my openingsSave and drill this line

More Queen's Indian Defense lines

Most played first; each line counts its own games.

All 47 Queen's Indian Defense lines, ranked

47 variations · ranked by floor

Floor — the worst score you would still get, 90% confident.

1
Queen's Indian Defense: Kasparov-Petrosian Variation, Rashkovsky Attack236 games
56.6%Floor 51.3%
2
Queen's Indian Defense: Kasparov-Petrosian Variation, Modern Variation4.3K games
51.7%Floor 50.4%
3
Queen's Indian Defense: Classical Variation, Traditional Variation, Main Line32K games
50.4%Floor 49.9%
Queen's Indian Defense: Kasparov Variation503K games
49.6%Floor 49.4%
Queen's Indian Defense92K games
49.5%Floor 49.3%
Queen's Indian Defense: Kasparov-Petrosian Variation, Andersson Variation15K games
49.7%Floor 49.0%
Queen's Indian Defense: Spassky System179K games
49.0%Floor 48.8%
Queen's Indian Defense: Fianchetto Variation, Nimzowitsch Variation67K games
49.0%Floor 48.7%
Queen's Indian Defense: Kasparov-Petrosian Variation, Polovodin Gambit1.4K games
50.9%Floor 48.7%
Queen's Indian Defense: Kasparov-Petrosian Variation, Main Line50K games
48.8%Floor 48.4%
Queen's Indian Defense: Fianchetto Variation, Check Variation, Intermezzo Line34K games
48.9%Floor 48.4%
Queen's Indian Defense: Averbakh Variation396 games
52.2%Floor 48.1%
Queen's Indian Defense: Kasparov-Petrosian Variation, Hedgehog Variation5.7K games
49.0%Floor 47.9%
Queen's Indian Defense: Miles Variation29K games
48.3%Floor 47.8%
Queen's Indian Defense: Petrosian Variation, Farago Defense2.8K games
49.1%Floor 47.5%
Queen's Indian Defense: Petrosian Variation43K games
47.6%Floor 47.2%
Queen's Indian Defense: Fianchetto Variation, Check Variation3.7K games
48.5%Floor 47.2%
Queen's Indian Defense: Fianchetto Variation, Nimzowitsch Variation, Quiet Line14K games
47.7%Floor 47.0%
Queen's Indian Defense: Kasparov-Petrosian Variation, Petrosian Attack8.4K games
47.9%Floor 47.0%
Queen's Indian Defense: Classical Variation, Traditional Variation, Nimzowitsch Line206K games
47.0%Floor 46.8%
Queen's Indian Defense: Anti-Queen's Indian System30K games
47.1%Floor 46.7%
Queen's Indian Defense: Euwe Variation9.3K games
47.5%Floor 46.7%
Queen's Indian Defense: Fianchetto Variation, Nimzowitsch Variation, Nimzowitsch Attack11K games
47.4%Floor 46.6%
Queen's Indian Defense: Riumin Variation31K games
47.0%Floor 46.6%
Queen's Indian Defense: Classical Variation, Traditional Variation159K games
46.7%Floor 46.5%
Queen's Indian Defense: Capablanca Variation91K games
46.7%Floor 46.5%
Queen's Indian Defense: Kasparov-Petrosian Variation, Kasparov Attack9.0K games
47.3%Floor 46.5%
Queen's Indian Defense: Classical Variation, Tiviakov Defense5.3K games
47.4%Floor 46.3%
Queen's Indian Defense: Kasparov Variation, Botvinnik Attack1.8K games
48.2%Floor 46.3%
Queen's Indian Defense: Fianchetto Variation20K games
46.8%Floor 46.3%
Queen's Indian Defense: Kasparov-Petrosian Variation, Marco Defense63K games
46.6%Floor 46.2%
Queen's Indian Defense: Yates Variation22K games
46.8%Floor 46.2%
Queen's Indian Defense: Fianchetto Variation, Sämisch Variation41K games
46.4%Floor 46.0%
Queen's Indian Defense: Kasparov-Petrosian Variation, Romanishin Attack1.3K games
48.3%Floor 46.0%
Queen's Indian Defense: Kasparov-Petrosian Variation, Classical Variation14K games
46.6%Floor 45.9%
Queen's Indian Defense: Classical Variation93K games
45.9%Floor 45.6%
Queen's Indian Defense: Fianchetto Variation, Nimzowitsch Variation, Timman's Line2.1K games
46.4%Floor 44.7%
Queen's Indian Defense: Fianchetto Variation, Kramnik Variation17K games
45.2%Floor 44.5%
Queen's Indian Defense: Kasparov-Petrosian Variation40K games
44.8%Floor 44.4%
Queen's Indian Defense: Traditional Variation6.7K games
45.4%Floor 44.4%
Queen's Indian Defense: Fianchetto Variation, Traditional Line113K games
44.7%Floor 44.4%
Queen's Indian Defense: Fianchetto Variation, Check Variation, Modern Line1.2K games
45.8%Floor 43.4%
Queen's Indian Defense: Classical Variation, Polugaevsky Gambit18K games
44.0%Floor 43.4%
Queen's Indian Defense: Fianchetto Variation, Rubinstein Variation7.4K games
44.1%Floor 43.1%
Queen's Indian Defense: Classical Variation, Taimanov Gambit2.1K games
43.1%Floor 41.4%
Queen's Indian Defense: Opocensky Variation729 games
42.0%Floor 39.1%
Queen's Indian Defense: Buerger Variation282 games
41.9%Floor 37.2%
Analyze Queen's Indian Defense PositionsSee what each move is worth at your rating, move by move

Methodology

Across every level and clock, the Queen's Indian Defense family scores 47.8% for Black, with a range running from 47.8% to 47.9% around that figure, from 2.1M rated Lichess games across 47 variations. Win rate, draw rate and loss rate come from games played September 2023 to August 2026.

How the figures are made
Whose games these are
2.1M rated games played on Lichess (2023-09 to 2026-08). The games are Lichess’s and free for anyone to use. What is ours is the reading of them. Last rebuilt September 2026.
Which games we count
  • Rated games only — nothing casual.
  • Both players within 200 rating points of each other. A mismatch tells you about the gap, not about the opening.
  • At least 2 moves played.
  • A game is filed under White’s rating.
Why every number comes with a range
A number off a few hundred games is a guess. The same number off millions is a fact. The range is what tells them apart, and it is what the lists rank on — so an opening cannot reach the top on a lucky run of forty games. The more games behind a figure, the narrower its range.
What the Floor and Edge at worst are
The Floor is the worst score you would still get, 90% confident: the low end of a figure’s range, not its average. Edge at worst is how far wins run ahead of losses, 90% confident, so above zero, that side wins more than it loses even on a bad day. Each is stated for the rating and clock shown, over the games that reached the position. They are on different scales: a score sits at 50 when the sides are level, an edge at zero.
How much we need before we say anything
An opening page needs 100 games. A figure on it needs 100 games at its rating and clock: short of that the answer reads a wider scope and says so, a table row shows only its count, and a map cell shows a dash. Under 1.0K games a figure is drawn faint, and never leads a list or counts as the best or worst place the line wins. The chaos and trap lists need 500 games overall and 250 games at one rating or clock.