Yury Markushin - 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 least amount 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 Draw Points per Win % 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

1

Van't Kruijs Attack

White Draw Points per Win % 100 games % 28

25

40.5 1

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 Draw Points per Win % 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

2

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

Rank Opening

Black Draw Points per Win % 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 3

=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

4