In a chain drive for an internal combustion engine, said chain drive comprising a driving wheel (2), a driven wheel (3), an endlessly circulating chain (1) that connects the driving wheel (2) and the driven wheel (3), a chain tensioner (9) acting on the slack strand (7) of the chain (1), and an additional tensioning device (12) that is loaded by a spring (13) and acts on the tight strand (6) of the chain (1) while being arranged for pivoting, a further driven wheel (4) is installed in the tight strand (6) of the chain drive and is used as a driving wheel for a rotatably mounted compensating shaft for offsetting free forces and moments that occur during operation of the internal combustion engine.