Valencian Variation

The Valencian Variation, 3...Qd8, brings the queen all the way back to her starting square instead of stopping on a5 or d6. The name was proposed in 2023 by Sergi Núñez de Arenas and Francisco Rubio in the Spanish magazine Peón de Rey. It refers to Scachs d'amor, the fifteenth-century Valencian poem in which this retreat occurs in what may be the oldest recorded game of chess. On d8 the queen can no longer be harassed by Nb5, Bf4 or Bd2. The cost is scope: she must later spend another tempo to become active, and in the meantime White develops without hindrance.

The Main Line runs 4. d4 Nf6 5. Nf3 Bg4. Black develops the light-squared bishop before closing it in with ...e6 and pins the knight that supports d4. A typical continuation is 6. h3 Bxf3 7. Qxf3 c6. Here 7...Qxd4 is a blunder because 8. Qxb7 wins the rook on a8. The Ilundain Variation, 4. d4 Nf6 5. Nf3 c6, plays the pawn move first and keeps the bishop's destination open. Both lead to a compact setup with pawns on c6 and e6 against White's d4 pawn, in which Black gives up some space and time in return for a position with few weaknesses.

In online play 4. Nf3 is the most common reply, ahead of 4. d4 and 4. Bc4, and results are close to even. Engines give White a slight edge.

Before the twentieth century 3...Qd8 was often treated as the main line. Howard Staunton and Carl Jaenisch both called it best, while giving 4. d4 Bf5 5. Nf3 e6 6. Bc4 as favorable for White. It was gradually replaced by 3...Qa5. A revival followed David Bronstein's game against Andrija Fuderer in 1959, which Bronstein lost, using 4. d4 Nf6. Karl Robatsch and others tried the fianchetto 4. d4 g6, intending ...Ng8-h6. That plan lost credibility after Fischer–Robatsch at the 1962 Varna Olympiad. There, 4. d4 g6 5. Bf4 Bg7 6. Qd2 ruled out ...Nh6 and prepared queenside castling, and 6...Bxd4 would have run into the pin 7. O-O-O. White then won with an attack on the h-file and g-file. A further Fischer miniature, against William Addison in 1970, also damaged the line's reputation.

The variation is still considered playable, though somewhat passive. Its present-day advocates include the international masters John Bartholomew and Daniel Lowinger, who wrote a 2013 book on it, and the grandmasters David Garcia Ilundain and Nikola Djukić.