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Chess Statistics: Top 10 Best Openings for White and Black

Yury Markushin
Yury Markushin
08.31.2012
Category: Openings
Tags: chess, chess statistics, learn chess, openings
Chess Statistics: Top 10 Best Openings for White and Black

There are many games of chess being played each minute and even each second. There are players who play online blitz chess for fun and there are those who play standard 2-hour time control chess to make a living (they are called Grandmasters).

You know there are chess databases that store many of the games that were played, and therefore there is a pretty good statistics on those games, such as how many moves each game lasts, openings played, amount of draws, wins, and losses…

Today we will take a look into chess statistics and see what openings can lead to the best results for white and which ones are more favorable for black.

We will also see the list of top openings that lead to draws and which ones lead to the least amount of draws.

The tabled below were composed at ntlworld.com and much more useful chess statistics information can be found on that website

White’s Best 10 Openings (Based on White Win % + (Draw % x 0.5))

Rank Opening White Win % Draw % Points per 100 games
1 Queen’s Gambit 40 36 58
2 Blackmar Diemer Gambit 49 16 57
3 Ruy Lopez 40 33 56.5
4 Bishop’s Opening 41 30 56
5 Benko Opening 38 35 55.5
=5 Reti Opening 37 37 55.5
=5 Vienna Game 41 29 55.5
8 Centre Game 44 22 55
=8 English Opening 38 34 55
=8 Scotch Game 40 30 55

White’s Worst 10 Openings (Based on White Win % + (Draw % x 0.5))

Rank Opening White Win % Draw % Points per 100 games
1 Van’t Kruijs Attack 28 25 40.5
2 Anderssen’s Opening 30 27 43.5
3 Grob Opening 36 18 45
4 Saragossa Opening 34 23 45.5
5 Bird’s Opening 34 25 46.5
6 Polish Defense 38 23 49.5
7 Dunst Opening 36 28 50
=7 Anti-Veresov Opening 36 28 50
9 Colle System 35 31 50.5
10 Mieses Opening 39 24 51

Black’s Best 10 Openings (Based on Black Win % + (Draw % x 0.5))

Rank Opening Black Win % Draw % Points per 100 games
1 Sicilian Defense 34 29 48.5
=1 Nimzo Indian 30 37 48.5
3 Robatsch Defense 33 29 47.5
4 Alekhine Defense 32 30 47
5 Nimzowitsch Defense 34 25 46.5
=5 Rat 30 33 46.5
7 Benko Gambit 32 28 46
=7 Modern Defense 31 30 46
=7 Queen’s Indian Defense 25 42 46
10 Pseudo King’s Indian 29 33 45.5

Black’s Worst 10 Openings (Based on Black Win % + (Draw % x 0.5))

Rank Opening Black Win % Draw % Points per 100 games
1 Gunderam Defense 25 25 37.5
2 Polish Opening 28 23 39.5
3 St George’s Defense 30 20 40
4 Budapest Gambit 27 27 40.5
=4 Philidor’s Defense 27 27 40.5
6 Latvian Gambit 33 17 41.5
=6 Petroff’s Defense 22 39 41.5
=6 Queenside Fianchetto 29 25 41.5
9 Bogo-Indian Defense 22 42 43
=9 Dutch Defense 28 30 43
=9 King’s Indian 28 30 43

10 Most Drawn Openings

Rank Opening Draw (%)
1 Bogo-Indian Defense 42
=1 Queen’s Indian Defense 42
3 Petroff’s Defense 39
=3 Four Knight’s Defense 39
5 Grunfeld Defense 37
=5 Nimzo Indian 37
=5 Reti Opening 37
8 Queen’s Gambit 36
9 Benko Opening 35
=9 Three Knight’s Defense 35

10 Least Drawn Openings

Rank Opening Draw (%)
1 Blackmar Diemer Gambit 16
=1 Blackmar Diemer Gambit (Delayed) 16
3 Latvian Gambit 17
4 Grob Opening 18
5 King’s Gambit 20
=5 St George’s Defense 20
7 Center Game 22
8 Polish Defense 23
=8 Polish Opening 23
=8 Saragossa Opening 23

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22 Comments
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Saswathacademy
10.04.2021 08:08

wow…amazing post
more detail about Online chess coaching
Online chess coaching

-1
Reply
Chessluvr811
12.18.2020 21:42

Wouldn’t the Botez Gambit be the lowest Winrate? Or would you consider it higher than average?

Thanks,

1
Reply
Raul Diaz
06.28.2020 23:51

Strange statistics – where is Berlin Defense (25%white/57%draw/17%black) and French Exchange Variation (19/57/24) in the drawish set?

0
Reply
Jason
04.10.2020 19:14

This is about 8 years old now, how about an update?? Also, wouldn’t the worst opening for White be the Barnes Opening? Of course maybe it’s not listed because nobody plays it.

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J. Dagg
12.04.2019 04:00

Can’t find anyone else asking – what does the = BEFORE a number (ranking) mean compared with a number (ranking) WITHOUT it in the tables above??

Ex: 5 for Benko Opening and =5 for Reti Opening

I know there have been no new entries for a long time but if this is seen by anyone I would really like to know (I’m using the tables to teach a few basics to a ten year old and when he asked about that – I couldn’t answer what the difference is so any help appreciated.

I’ll check back to this site – and thanks in advance for any explanation

0
Reply
Yury Markushin
Author
Reply to  J. Dagg
12.06.2019 09:02

Good question!

There is no difference, It simply means Benko Opening, Reti Opening and Vienna Game are tied for 5th place [with 55.5 points per 100 games].

0
Reply
Pretty awesome stats - good to know! What about most common pairings?
12.19.2018 14:47

I’d love to know the most common pairings of openings. I.e. When white opens with _____, black defends with _____ x% of the time, and also wins/losses statistics for white and black with each pairing.

A statistician’s project no doubt, but no doubt many would be curious to see the results.

1
Reply
Larry C.
06.15.2015 16:17

While few GMs have played the Blackmar-Deimer as White, Joel Benjamin and Juan Bellon have lost while playing against it. Former USSR Champion M. Gurevitch once declined the BDG saying that taking the pawn on f3 looked “complicated”! Further, NM Charles Deibert resigned a WON endgame against IM I. Ivanov, not realizing that after Ivanov’s Pawn promoted to a Queen, Deibert had a K+P+ minor piece forced mate.

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Reply
rush
01.27.2015 05:45

Blackmar Diemer Gambit have good statistic. but, why we never saw grand master in Modern era use it? even in blitz game.

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Reply
Dominic
11.20.2014 09:45

And come to think that I always attempt to play the Blackmar-Diemer Gambit with white for at least 1.5 years now, whilst I’ve heard people say that it could not possibly be good… 😀

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Reply
Vatnos
11.07.2014 20:06

[quote name=”Rob Watson”]Interesting to see the Benko draws 35% when played by White, but only 28% when played by Black. I’d like to see the 7% of games where White plays the Benko but Black somehow doesn’t. Also, White scores 55.5% with the Benko and Black scores 46%, totalling 101.5%; how?[/quote]

The percents are different because the opening is probably counted from the 3rd move for Black, but the 4th move for White. It may include decline lines for White that it doesn’t include for Black.

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Nhatz Loyaga
10.02.2014 02:57

Why Caro-Kan not in the list most drawn opening for black?

0
Reply
geetha krishna
06.07.2014 16:33

thanks a lot fr d info!infact searchng info on openings! 🙂 tnx again

0
Reply
Mark
06.07.2014 14:01

Have we all forgotten the best opening for either white or black ? The name of that opening is – ‘The opening your oponent feels most uncomfortable with.’ 🙂

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Reply
Richard Davis
05.03.2014 17:08

Wow! The blackmar-diemer gambit is the 2nd best scoring opening for White? Really? I wouldn’t have expected that especially as we never see in in GM play,

0
Reply
rosalia50
05.05.2014 14:13

Thanks for sharding your thoughts on chess statistics.
Regards

0
Reply
saghirahmed
05.03.2014 17:20

best knowlege

0
Reply
Bertrand Wilson
05.04.2014 02:57

Benko Opening is 1.g3. (Admittedly, that is an obscure name for 1.g3!)

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Reply
homoeporediensis
04.11.2014 22:44

The idea that the Robatsch/Rat/Modern defence are between the best openings for black is simply ridicolous! 😆

0
Reply
heatsh
04.12.2014 00:52

@Rob Watson, I think you mess up between Benko Opening and Benko Gambit

0
Reply
Rob Watson
08.16.2013 13:35

Interesting to see the Benko draws 35% when played by White, but only 28% when played by Black. I’d like to see the 7% of games where White plays the Benko but Black somehow doesn’t. Also, White scores 55.5% with the Benko and Black scores 46%, totalling 101.5%; how?

0
Reply
Howard Wachtel
09.04.2012 02:10

Whatis the difference between the Modern Defense, the “Rat”, and the Robatsch Defense?

Also, what is the “Pseudo” Kings Indian and why is that on the top 10 list for Black but the ordinary Kings Indian is on the bottom 10 list?

2
Reply
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