Best opening chess moves for white how to#

However, I never truly understood the opening and hated to play with the lack of space. When I was a young chess player I tried to play the French Defense because it seemed hard to play against. If that’s not the case, the study will be tiresome and results will be lackluster. Therefore, I want to give you some tips to make your opening study as easy as possible.Īt the beginning, before you decide to study and play an opening, take a look at the main positions and ideas and ask yourself if you intuitively understand the opening and would like to play it. If you’re a busy person like me, you’ll want to improve at chess as time efficient as possible.

Best opening chess moves for white how to#

I now look forward to facing these openings, because I know exactly how to play against them! And contrary to other popular opinions, I think that studying chess openings teach you important strategical concepts. … c6.Īfter I spent some time studying how to play against these openings, this feeling has completely shifted. I still remember the times when I was afraid of facing the Caro-Kann or French Defense – I simply didn’t know how to play against them and I would already feel demoralized as soon as my opponents would play 1.

If you have a solid chess opening repertoire, you’ll approach games with more confidence. I found this illustration on chess stack exchange, which highlights the different variations that can arise in the Sicilian – and this is just one opening! Each of these variations will have differences in terms of win rates. g3 and therefore these moves are played less regularly.įourth, the different first moves all branch out in different variations that each may have better or worst win rates. Players might not like the type of games that appear after 1. e4 is known to create an open and tactical game, while 1. Third, the nature of the game changes with the opening. As it stands today though, these moves appear to be powerful surprise weapons. If these opening moves would appear more often, opponents would be better prepared and the win rate may change. g3 are unusual moves that will surprise opponents due to their rarity. At a difference this small, the individual win rate depends on the skill of the player. e4 (49%) over the course of a hundred games. If we take the under 2000 data set, it really means that white “only” wins 3 more games if he starts with 1. e4, when it doesn’t seem to be the objectively best move at a first glance of the data?įirst, the difference is minimal. d4, and only 18,614 games started with 1. Still, the data set is big enough that all numbers are statistically significant.įor masters, the database lists 1,038,423 games that start with 1. Nf3 has been played only 5.621.658 times. g3 are both played less frequently than the most popular moves 1. Let’s give more context to this data: The “best first moves” 1. Win rate for white after the first move for master players First Move

Win rate for white after the first move for players under 2000 ELO First Move

g3, has the best win rate with 36% for masters.

For masters, the win rate of openings hover at around 33% due to the higher amount of draws in master play. Nf3, scores the best with a win rate of 52% for white. Many chess player ask: What are the best chess openings for white? - I did the research to give you an answer.Īll chess openings for white score approximately equal for players under 2000 and hover around a 50% win rate.