What players actually play at each rating level
6.4 billion Lichess games split by rating: against 1.e4, 1…e5 falls from 56.4 % to 16.7 % of replies while the Sicilian triples, and 1.Nf3 is five times more common at the top.
Opening books tell you what masters play. Your opponents are not masters. We counted, in the Lichess opening book, which moves players choose in four key positions, band by band, from games between players averaging 1000–1199 up to games averaging 2500 and above.
How to read the figures. The source is the Lichess opening book: 6,402,244,240 games played between 2013 and 2025. A game's band is the average rating of its two players, and all time controls (bullet to correspondence) are mixed. A move's share is its number of games divided by all the games that reached the position in that band. Percentages are cut at one decimal, never rounded up.
After 1.e4: the Sicilian catches up with 1…e5
| Band (average rating) | Games | 1…e5 | 1…c5 | 1…c6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1000–1199 | 313,471,326 | 56.4 % | 9.0 % | 4.6 % |
| 1200–1399 | 581,393,355 | 52.4 % | 11.8 % | 5.3 % |
| 1400–1599 | 780,679,684 | 46.0 % | 15.1 % | 6.1 % |
| 1600–1799 | 827,024,865 | 37.7 % | 19.2 % | 7.3 % |
| 1800–1999 | 677,689,277 | 29.1 % | 23.2 % | 8.9 % |
| 2000–2199 | 365,693,573 | 21.6 % | 27.0 % | 10.5 % |
| 2200–2499 | 149,783,787 | 16.5 % | 30.4 % | 12.0 % |
| 2500+ | 20,563,517 | 16.7 % | 30.2 % | 12.7 % |
In games between players averaging 1000–1199, more than half of the replies to 1.e4 are 1…e5. In games averaging 2500+, it is one in six. The Sicilian goes the other way, from 9.0 % to 30.2 %, and overtakes 1…e5 in the 2000–2199 band (27.0 % against 21.6 %). The Caro-Kann almost triples, from 4.6 % to 12.7 %.
After 1.d4: 1…Nf6 takes over from 1…d5
| Band (average rating) | Games | 1…d5 | 1…Nf6 | 1…e5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1000–1199 | 104,649,040 | 53.4 % | 9.6 % | 9.0 % |
| 1200–1399 | 205,115,220 | 50.6 % | 11.6 % | 8.2 % |
| 1400–1599 | 299,489,336 | 46.8 % | 14.1 % | 7.3 % |
| 1600–1799 | 354,809,306 | 42.2 % | 17.5 % | 6.2 % |
| 1800–1999 | 330,240,749 | 36.5 % | 22.5 % | 5.2 % |
| 2000–2199 | 207,891,051 | 29.7 % | 29.3 % | 4.0 % |
| 2200–2499 | 102,327,571 | 24.7 % | 35.3 % | 2.7 % |
| 2500+ | 15,273,121 | 22.1 % | 40.5 % | 1.9 % |
The symmetrical 1…d5 answers more than half of the 1.d4 games at the bottom of the ladder and about a fifth at the top. 1…Nf6, the gateway to the Indian defences, rises from 9.6 % to 40.5 %. The two are level in the 2000–2199 band (29.7 % against 29.3 %); from 2200 on, 1…Nf6 leads. The gambit 1…e5 (the Englund) shrinks from 9.0 % to 1.9 %.
The first move: 1.e4 loses its majority
| Band (average rating) | Games | 1.e4 | 1.d4 | 1.Nf3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1000–1199 | 480,651,801 | 65.2 % | 21.7 % | 2.4 % |
| 1200–1399 | 909,148,629 | 64.0 % | 22.5 % | 2.4 % |
| 1400–1599 | 1,264,724,275 | 61.8 % | 23.7 % | 2.6 % |
| 1600–1799 | 1,405,957,351 | 58.9 % | 25.2 % | 2.9 % |
| 1800–1999 | 1,225,224,296 | 55.4 % | 27.0 % | 3.8 % |
| 2000–2199 | 724,819,457 | 50.5 % | 28.7 % | 5.4 % |
| 2200–2499 | 338,936,060 | 44.2 % | 30.2 % | 8.3 % |
| 2500+ | 52,782,371 | 38.9 % | 28.9 % | 13.0 % |
Two games out of three start with 1.e4 at the bottom of the ladder, fewer than two out of five at the top. 1.Nf3 goes from 2.4 % to 13.0 %. In the 1000–1199 band, 1.e3 (2.8 %) is even played more often than 1.Nf3 (2.4 %) or 1.c4 (1.9 %).
After 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6: the Italian below, the Spanish above
| Band (average rating) | Games | 3.Bc4 | 3.Bb5 | 3.d4 | 3.Nc3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1000–1199 | 63,335,253 | 40.1 % | 18.5 % | 15.5 % | 16.7 % |
| 1200–1399 | 117,244,763 | 42.0 % | 20.7 % | 16.1 % | 13.4 % |
| 1400–1599 | 140,553,863 | 42.8 % | 21.9 % | 17.5 % | 10.5 % |
| 1600–1799 | 122,954,381 | 43.0 % | 22.7 % | 19.2 % | 8.2 % |
| 1800–1999 | 81,151,178 | 42.1 % | 25.1 % | 19.9 % | 7.0 % |
| 2000–2199 | 35,885,300 | 39.0 % | 29.9 % | 19.5 % | 7.1 % |
| 2200–2499 | 12,865,446 | 33.3 % | 36.1 % | 18.6 % | 8.6 % |
| 2500+ | 2,154,627 | 26.9 % | 50.0 % | 12.4 % | 8.7 % |
The Italian (3.Bc4) is the first choice up to 2000–2199 and peaks at 43.0 % in the 1600–1799 band. The Ruy Lopez (3.Bb5) overtakes it in the 2200–2499 band (36.1 % against 33.3 %) and reaches 50.0 % at 2500+. The developing move 3.Nc3, which becomes the Four Knights after 3…Nf6, halves on the way up, from 16.7 % to 8.7 %.
What to do with it
- Prepare for the opponents you actually meet. In games between players averaging 1200–1399, 1.e4 is answered by 1…e5 52.4 % of the time and 3.Bc4 is played in 42.0 % of the games that reach 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6. A repertoire built from grandmaster games spends most of its time on lines you will rarely face.
- Expect more Sicilians and Caro-Kanns as you climb. Between 1600–1799 and 2000–2199, the Sicilian goes from 19.2 % to 27.0 % of the replies to 1.e4.
- Popularity is not quality. These tables say what is played, not what is best. 1…e5 and 1…d5 are perfectly sound at every level; Stockfish's opinion is a separate question, and the coach shows both side by side.
Our guides cover the openings in these tables move by move: the Sicilian, the Caro-Kann, the Italian Game, the Ruy Lopez and the Queen's Gambit. In the app's opening explorer, the opponent answers with the moves players at your level choose.
Method
Source: ClickHouse table chess.opening_book (Lichess games 2013–2025, aggregated by position and rating band), queried on 1 October 2026. For each position and band: the sum of the games of every move recorded from that position, transpositions included; games that ended in the position are not counted. The starting position counts only first moves, which gives the 6,402,244,240 games of the corpus. A band is the average of the two players' Lichess ratings; games where either player is rated below 1000 are not in the book.
Check it on your own games
Import a game from Lichess or Chess.com: Stockfish finds the moments that mattered, the coach explains them move by move.