Paulsen Attack Variation

The Paulsen Attack, 4. Qe3, is by far the most popular answer to the attack on White's queen after 3...Nc6, and it is usually treated as the main line of the Center Game. The other retreats each have a drawback. 4. Qc3 loses the queen to the pin 4...Bb4, and 4. Qd1 lets Black achieve ...d5 a few moves later in good circumstances. 4. Qa4 and 4. Qc4, the Hall Variation, are occasional choices. On e3 the queen faces Black's king along the half-open e-file, discourages ...d5 and can later shift to g3 to press against g7. The cost is that it blocks the c1-bishop, so White normally develops that piece via d2 and often castles queenside.

Black's most common reply, and the engine's first choice, is 4...Nf6, the Berger Variation, which develops while hitting e4. Its main line, 5. Nc3 Bb4 6. Bd2 O-O 7. O-O-O Re8, leads to opposite-side castling, and White then chooses among 8. Qg3, 8. Qf4 and 8. Bc4. Within the Berger, Black can instead pick the steadier 5...Be7 with ...d5 in mind, and White has the safer alternative 5. Bd2.

4...d6 is the second most frequent move. It keeps the e5-square under control, opens the c8-bishop and leaves Black free to choose a setup with ...Nf6 and ...Be7. 4...b6 prepares to fianchetto the queen's bishop on the long diagonal, aiming it at e4 and along to White's queenside, where the king often goes. Of the main replies, it is the one against which White scores best. The check 4...Bb4+ 5. c3 Be7 is the Charousek Variation: the bishop retreats only after provoking c3, which takes the natural square from White's queen's knight. 4...f5, the l'Hermet Variation, attacks e4 at once.

The engine assesses the position as balanced, preferring 4...Nf6, 4...Bb4+ and 4...Be7. The play is open, and in the queenside-castling lines it becomes a race between attacks on opposite wings. Draws are rare: in more than 55,000 Lichess games reaching the position, only 3.5% are drawn, with White winning somewhat more often than Black.