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 |
Ready to start winning games? Check out our store and articles:
wow…amazing post
more detail about Online chess coaching
Online chess coaching
Wouldn’t the Botez Gambit be the lowest Winrate? Or would you consider it higher than average?
Thanks,
Strange statistics – where is Berlin Defense (25%white/57%draw/17%black) and French Exchange Variation (19/57/24) in the drawish set?
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.
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
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].
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.
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.
Blackmar Diemer Gambit have good statistic. but, why we never saw grand master in Modern era use it? even in blitz game.
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… 😀
[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.
Why Caro-Kan not in the list most drawn opening for black?
thanks a lot fr d info!infact searchng info on openings! 🙂 tnx again
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.’ 🙂
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,
Thanks for sharding your thoughts on chess statistics.
Regards
best knowlege
Benko Opening is 1.g3. (Admittedly, that is an obscure name for 1.g3!)
The idea that the Robatsch/Rat/Modern defence are between the best openings for black is simply ridicolous! 😆
@Rob Watson, I think you mess up between Benko Opening and Benko Gambit
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?
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?