Best chess openings for White for beginners
Lines where White makes the last move, ranked by White's score (wins plus half the draws) in rated Lichess games between players rated under 1400. Among the 1,500 most-played lines, those reached in at least 50,000 games at this level.
Among Lichess players rated under 1400, Italian Game: Two Knights Defense, Fried Liver Attack scores best for White: 72.0% (wins plus half the draws) in 2.1M games, ahead of Vienna Game: Stanley Variation, Meitner-Mieses Gambit (66.7%) and Italian Game: Two Knights Defense, Max Lange Attack (62.2%).
The 30 best-scoring lines
| # | Opening | Moves | Games | White / Draw / BlackW / D / B | White score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | C57 Italian Game: Two Knights Defense, Fried Liver Attack | 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. Ng5 d5… |
2.1M | 71 / 2 / 27 | 72.0% |
| 2 | C25 Vienna Game: Stanley Variation, Meitner-Mieses Gambit | 1. e4 e5 2. Nc3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. Qg4… |
66K | 66 / 2 / 32 | 66.7% |
| 3 | C56 Italian Game: Two Knights Defense, Max Lange Attack | 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 exd4 4. Bc4… |
150K | 61 / 2 / 37 | 62.2% |
| 4 | C23 Bishop's Opening: Lewis Gambit | 1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 Bc5 3. d4 |
148K | 59 / 3 / 37 | 61.1% |
| 5 | C54 Italian Game: Classical Variation, Greco Gambit, Modern Line | 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. c3 Nf6… |
149K | 59 / 3 / 38 | 60.2% |
| 6 | C36 King's Gambit Accepted: Modern Defense | 1. e4 e5 2. f4 exf4 3. Nf3 d5 4. exd5 |
243K | 58 / 3 / 39 | 59.8% |
| 7 | B12 Caro-Kann Defense: Advance Variation, Tal Variation | 1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 Bf5 4. h4 |
100K | 58 / 3 / 39 | 59.7% |
| 8 | C41 Philidor Defense: Nimzowitsch Variation | 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 Nf6 4. dxe5 |
643K | 57 / 5 / 38 | 59.7% |
| 9 | C29 Vienna Game: Vienna Gambit | 1. e4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. f4 |
2.7M | 58 / 3 / 39 | 59.6% |
| 10 | B29 Sicilian Defense: Nimzowitsch Variation, Advance Variation | 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. e5 |
145K | 58 / 3 / 39 | 59.5% |
| 11 | B00 Nimzowitsch Defense: Kennedy Variation, Linksspringer Variation | 1. e4 Nc6 2. d4 e5 3. d5 |
3.8M | 57 / 4 / 39 | 59.3% |
| 12 | D07 Queen's Gambit Declined: Chigorin Defense, Janowski Variation | 1. d4 d5 2. c4 Nc6 3. Nc3 dxc4 4. Nf3 |
709K | 57 / 4 / 39 | 59.0% |
| 13 | C27 Bishop's Opening: Boden-Kieseritzky Gambit | 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Bc4 Nxe4 4. Nc3 |
114K | 57 / 3 / 40 | 58.7% |
| 14 | D21 Queen's Gambit Accepted: Normal Variation | 1. d4 d5 2. c4 dxc4 3. Nf3 |
1M | 57 / 4 / 40 | 58.5% |
| 15 | C44 Scotch Game: Göring Gambit, Double Pawn Sacrifice | 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 exd4 4. c3… |
415K | 57 / 3 / 40 | 58.3% |
| 16 | A40 Kangaroo Defense: Keres Defense, Transpositional Variation | 1. d4 e6 2. c4 Bb4+ 3. Nc3 |
169K | 57 / 4 / 40 | 58.3% |
| 17 | D20 Queen's Gambit Accepted: Old Variation | 1. d4 d5 2. c4 dxc4 3. e3 |
4.8M | 56 / 4 / 40 | 58.1% |
| 18 | C57 Italian Game: Two Knights Defense, Traxler Counterattack, Bishop Sacrifice Line | 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. Ng5… |
174K | 57 / 2 / 41 | 58.0% |
| 19 | D10 Slav Defense: Slav Gambit, Alekhine Attack | 1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nc3 dxc4 4. e4 |
348K | 56 / 4 / 40 | 57.8% |
| 20 | C65 Ruy Lopez: Berlin Defense | 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. O-O |
1.9M | 56 / 3 / 41 | 57.8% |
| 21 | C44 Scotch Game: Scotch Gambit, Advance Variation | 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 exd4 4. Bc4… |
411K | 56 / 3 / 41 | 57.8% |
| 22 | C57 Italian Game: Two Knights Defense, Knight Attack | 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. Ng5 |
11.8M | 56 / 3 / 41 | 57.7% |
| 23 | D24 Queen's Gambit Accepted: Showalter Variation | 1. d4 d5 2. c4 dxc4 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 |
573K | 56 / 4 / 40 | 57.7% |
| 24 | D15 Slav Defense: Geller Gambit | 1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 dxc4… |
69K | 56 / 4 / 41 | 57.6% |
| 25 | D24 Queen's Gambit Accepted | 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 dxc4… |
193K | 56 / 3 / 41 | 57.5% |
| 26 | C78 Ruy Lopez: Morphy Defense | 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6… |
523K | 56 / 3 / 41 | 57.4% |
| 27 | C65 Ruy Lopez: Classical Variation, Zukertort Gambit | 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. O-O… |
237K | 56 / 3 / 41 | 57.4% |
| 28 | A80 Dutch Defense: Hopton Attack | 1. d4 f5 2. Bg5 |
69K | 56 / 3 / 41 | 57.4% |
| 29 | D07 Queen's Gambit Declined: Chigorin Defense | 1. d4 d5 2. c4 Nc6 3. Nc3 |
532K | 55 / 4 / 41 | 57.3% |
| 30 | C42 Petrov's Defense: Classical Attack | 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 d6 4. Nf3… |
105K | 55 / 4 / 41 | 57.2% |
Numbers: rated blitz, rapid and classical games on Lichess between players rated under 1400, fetched for the 1,500 most-played lines and refreshed monthly. Each name appears once, as its most-played line. At this level, sharp lines in which a natural-looking reply goes wrong score highest. A high score says how a line does in practice, not that it is objectively best.