Best chess openings for blitz, by the numbers (13,000+ top Lichess games)
"What should I play in blitz?" Here is what the strongest online players actually play, and how they score with it. We took the last 150 rated games of the top 100 titled players on the Lichess leaderboards: 13,865 games, 98% of them bullet or blitz (counting ultrabullet). Score means points per game for the titled player (win 1, draw ½). Across the whole sample they scored 67% with White and 62% with Black, so judge each opening against those averages.
Short answer
- With White, the top players' most-played setup is the Zukertort Opening (860 games, 64%). The best-scoring White choice with 80+ games is the Nimzo-Larsen Attack at 71%.
- With Black, the most-played defence is the Sicilian Defense (837 games, 63%). The best-scoring defence with 80+ games is the Modern Defense at 66%, against a 62% Black average.
- Hardest to face: as Black, titled players scored only 54% against the Four Knights Game (105 games). As White, they scored only 59% against the Alekhine Defense (131 games), against a 67% White average.
White openings, ranked
Each row is a setup White chooses. The first pair of columns is how titled players scored playing it as White; the second is how they scored facing it as Black (80+ games as White to be listed).
| Opening | Titled players played it (as White) | Their score | Titled players faced it (as Black) | Their score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nimzo-Larsen Attack | 235 | 71% | 258 | 60% |
| Four Knights Game | 106 | 70% | 105 | 54% |
| English Opening | 424 | 68% | 384 | 65% |
| King's Indian Attack | 338 | 68% | 208 | 59% |
| Ruy Lopez | 112 | 67% | 120 | 63% |
| Van't Kruijs Opening | 89 | 66% | 59 | 60% |
| Queen's Pawn Game | 406 | 65% | 401 | 63% |
| Zukertort Opening | 860 | 64% | 623 | 59% |
| Hungarian Opening | 95 | 64% | 211 | 68% |
Defences, ranked
Each row is a defence Black chooses. The first pair of columns is how titled players scored playing it as Black; the second is how they scored facing it as White.
| Opening | Titled players played it (as Black) | Their score | Titled players faced it (as White) | Their score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Modern Defense | 289 | 66% | 203 | 71% |
| Sicilian Defense | 837 | 63% | 781 | 69% |
| French Defense | 290 | 63% | 325 | 67% |
| Indian Defense | 246 | 63% | 241 | 67% |
| Slav Defense | 93 | 62% | 92 | 71% |
| Caro-Kann Defense | 583 | 61% | 353 | 64% |
| Benoni Defense | 158 | 61% | 146 | 73% |
| Queen's Gambit Declined | 253 | 59% | 303 | 71% |
| Scandinavian Defense | 153 | 58% | 128 | 72% |
| Alekhine Defense | 146 | 58% | 131 | 59% |
| Pirc Defense | 91 | 57% | 109 | 69% |
| King's Indian Defense | 146 | 57% | 159 | 67% |
How to use this in your own blitz games
- Differences of 2 or 3 points are noise at these sample sizes. Treat the tables as "nothing here is a bad choice", not as a strict ranking.
- Pick openings you can play fast. In bullet and blitz, a setup you know well beats a sharper line you half-remember. Three of the most-played White setups here (1.Nf3, the English and the King's Indian Attack) are flexible systems with few forcing lines.
- The opening you face matters as much as the one you pick. The biggest swing in this data is not in your own repertoire but in your opponent's. Before a match or a tournament game, check what that specific player plays and where they score worst: our free opening fingerprint does it from any Lichess username in about 10 seconds.
More from the same data: what the top 100 titled Lichess players play and where they score worst, and a guide for every major opening with its most common variations.
Method: the last 150 rated games of each of the top 100 titled players on the Lichess leaderboards (data from 2026-10-18), via the public Lichess API. Openings are grouped by Lichess family name; "Queen's Pawn Game" is mostly 1.d4 setups without an early c4, such as the London System. Games between two players in the sample count for both. Only openings with at least 80 games are listed. Not affiliated with Lichess.