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Top 10 Best Openings for White and Black

08.31.2023

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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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Updated 12.21.2023

Comments:

Saswathacademy:

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

Chessluvr811:

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

Raul Diaz:

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

Jason:

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.

Yury Markushin:

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].

J. Dagg:

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

Pretty awesome stats - good to know! What about most common pairings?:

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.

Larry C.:

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.

rush:

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

Dominic:

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... :D

Vatnos:

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.

Nhatz Loyaga:

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

geetha krishna:

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

Mark:

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.' :-)

rosalia50:

Thanks for sharding your thoughts on chess statistics.Regards

Bertrand Wilson:

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

saghirahmed:

best knowlege

Richard Davis:

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,

heatsh:

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

homoeporediensis:

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

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?

Howard Wachtel:

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?