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Chess opening statistics
Which chess opening wins the most? The table below answers with 2,658,585 real Lichess games: the rate of White wins, draws and Black wins across the 27 main openings. Every linked opening has a full move by move page.
The main openings in numbers
| Opening | Moves | ECO | Games | White | Draws | Black |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sicilian Defense | 1.e4 c5 | B20 | 388,917 | 45.9% | 4.4% | 49.7% |
| French Defense | 1.e4 e6 | C00 | 202,192 | 47.8% | 4.6% | 47.5% |
| Queen's Gambit | 1.d4 d5 2.c4 | D06 | 154,562 | 54.6% | 4.8% | 40.7% |
| Scandinavian Defense | 1.e4 d5 | B01 | 111,932 | 49.7% | 4.3% | 46.0% |
| English Opening | 1.c4 | A10 | 97,752 | 51.2% | 4.8% | 43.9% |
| Caro-Kann Defense | 1.e4 c6 | B10 | 93,081 | 45.4% | 5.0% | 49.6% |
| Italian Game | 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 | C50 | 88,443 | 50.6% | 4.1% | 45.2% |
| Philidor Defense | 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6 | C41 | 80,215 | 55.1% | 4.4% | 40.5% |
| Ruy Lopez | 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 | C60 | 73,519 | 52.1% | 4.7% | 43.2% |
| King's Gambit | 1.e4 e5 2.f4 | C30 | 68,798 | 55.0% | 3.4% | 41.7% |
| Pirc Defense | 1.e4 d6 | B00 | 58,616 | 47.8% | 4.3% | 47.9% |
| Queen's Gambit Declined | 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 | D30 | 45,803 | 52.1% | 5.4% | 42.6% |
| Modern Defense | 1.e4 g6 | B06 | 44,850 | 49.2% | 4.4% | 46.5% |
| Slav Defense | 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 | D10 | 41,842 | 51.3% | 5.1% | 43.6% |
| Scotch Game | 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 | C44 | 40,877 | 52.7% | 4.6% | 42.7% |
| Queen's Gambit Accepted | 1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 | D20 | 30,642 | 60.5% | 4.2% | 35.4% |
| Alekhine's Defense | 1.e4 Nf6 | B02 | 30,110 | 44.6% | 4.3% | 51.1% |
| Petrov's Defense | 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 | C42 | 27,081 | 51.2% | 4.5% | 44.3% |
| Vienna Game | 1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 | C25 | 20,015 | 54.1% | 4.2% | 41.6% |
| London System | 1.d4 d5 2.Bf4 | D00 | 18,987 | 51.3% | 5.0% | 43.8% |
| King's Indian Defense | 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 | E61 | 16,082 | 47.5% | 5.0% | 47.4% |
| Dutch Defense | 1.d4 f5 | A80 | 15,820 | 48.2% | 4.8% | 47.0% |
| Nimzo-Indian Defense | 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 | E20 | 13,554 | 46.0% | 4.9% | 49.1% |
| Benoni Defense | 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 | A56 | 12,386 | 42.6% | 4.7% | 52.6% |
| Réti Opening | 1.Nf3 d5 2.c4 | A09 | 6,918 | 56.5% | 4.4% | 39.1% |
| Grünfeld Defense | 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 | D80 | 6,847 | 44.6% | 5.9% | 49.4% |
| Catalan Opening | 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 | E00 | 882 | 50.9% | 4.6% | 44.4% |
What 2,658,585 games reveal
Why 1.e4 rules: 60% of the games in this sample start with the king's pawn, against 26% for the queen's pawn. The reason is pedagogical before it is theoretical: 1.e4 frees the queen and a bishop at once, leads to open positions and is the first move nearly everyone learns. Bobby Fischer called it best by test, and the database agrees on popularity, even if it settles no argument about quality.
The Sicilian as the fighting reply: against 1.e4, 24% of players answer 1...c5, and the Sicilian's draw rate of 4.4% sits among the lowest in the table. Asymmetry from move two means fewer dead positions and more decisive games: exactly what a counterattacking defense promises.
What the rates do say: the first move advantage is real and measurable. In this sample White wins 49.5% of games and Black 46.0%, with 4.5% drawn. What they do not say: nothing here is an engine verdict. These are human blitz, rapid and classical games in the 1600 to 2199 rating range, so an opening can score well by setting practical traps rather than by being objectively better. Popularity also contaminates: fashionable lines attract players who barely know them. Read the table as a map of practical results, not as a periodic table of truth.
House curiosity: chess notation is a code like any other in this section. A board has 64 squares, the same 26 that makes a byte look small: see the binary converter. And before online ratings, urgent news traveled in dots and dashes: Morse code.
Source: the Lichess open game database (database.lichess.org, CC0 data), months 2014-06, 2015-01, 2016-01, snapshot of 2026-07-09: blitz, rapid and classical games with the players' average rating between 1600 and 2199, aggregated by move sequence. Variation names and ECO codes: lichess-org/chess-openings (CC0).
Last updated: · Methodology and sources