Queen's Gambit Declined, Orthodox Defense

The Orthodox Defense is one of the classical setups within the Queen's Gambit Declined. Black supports d5 with ...e6, develops the g8-knight to f6, places the f8-bishop on e7, castles kingside, and brings the b8-knight to d7. Orthodox means traditional or established here; it is not a special chess rule.

The Orthodox completes kingside development first

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StartBe7e3O-ONf3Nbd7

The bishop attacks f6 and points toward d8 behind the knight. The two arrows form one pin.

Bg5 aligns the knight with the queen

The f6-knight cannot move freely because doing so would expose the queen on d8.

1. The bishop attacks f6 and points toward d8 behind the knight. The two arrows form one pin.
2. ...Be7 develops a piece and places another bishop behind the knight, so the queen is no longer the immediate target of that alignment.

The purpose is to finish kingside development before deciding how to resolve the tension between White's c4-pawn and Black's d5-pawn. Kingside castling is the joint king-and-rook move toward that side of the board; it shelters the king and helps connect the rooks. Black accepts that the c8-bishop will remain restricted by the e6-pawn for a while in return for a solid central structure.