Austrian Defense
chess opening
The Austrian Defense is a chess opening that begins with the moves:
1. d4 d5
2. c4 c5
The Austrian Defense is an uncommon variation of the Queen's Gambit, and is also referred to as the Symmetrical Defense to the Queen's Gambit. Black poses the question of whether equalizing is possible by simply copying White's moves. Most opening theoreticians believe that White should gain the advantage and at best Black is playing for a draw.
The opening was first described in print by Alessandro Salvio in 1604. The name arose because it was studied by Austrian chess players including Hans Haberditz (c. 1901–57), Hans Müller (1896–1971), and GM Ernst Grünfeld.
Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura employed the unusual opening a few times in 2023 and 2024. With the opening, he drew former world champion Magnus Carlsen in the Champions Chess Tour 2023 finals and beat reigning world champion Ding Liren in Norway Chess 2024.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1709138. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1604, 1901, 1896 and 1971.
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This entry incorporates text from “Austrian Defense” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.