The internal and external key factors influencing the reaction rates were considered for the Diels-Alder reaction (DAR) with normal electron demand. A simple dependence lgk 2 ¼ S28.81 R316.3/(IP D SE A )S69.9 R 1-4 /(IP D SE A )S0.054DH r-n for the reaction rate as a function of the ionization potential of p-donor dienes, electron affinity of p-acceptor dienophiles, heat of reaction and diene structure (R 1-4 ) was obtained. This relation allows one to explain the origin of the conventional and 'anomalous' relations between activity and selectivity, and the variety of relationships between the kinetic activity and thermodynamic stability. It helps one to choose the conditions for the directed synthesis of desired products, to explain the acceleration effects in the presence of Lewis acids and to predict the rates of the DAR between the different reagents with C --C bonds not explored earlier.The values of the rate constants were taken from References [13,14,23,24,36,[58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65]; data on IP, E A were taken from References [13,18,56,57,59,62,[66][67][68][69]; data on the enthalpies of reactions were taken from References [24,67,[69][70][71][72]. The values of enthalpies of reactions 81, 82 93 were calculated (Reference [67]) from the data of the heat of formation of reagents and adducts.