Best chess openings for White, by the numbers (20,708 top-player games)
"What should I play with White?" Here is what the strongest online players actually open with and how they score. We used two samples: the top 50 players on the Chess.com blitz leaderboard (6,843 recent rated blitz games) and the top 100 titled players on Lichess (13,865 recent rated games, mostly bullet and blitz). Score means points per game for the top player (win 1, draw ½). With White they averaged 73% on Chess.com and 67% on Lichess, so compare every opening with those averages, not with 50%.
Short answer
- 1.e4 or 1.d4? It doesn't matter much. On Chess.com the top players opened 1.e4 in 1347 games (73%) and 1.d4 in 1292 (74%), with 1.Nf3 third (519, 74%). All three score within a point of their 73% White average.
- Italian over Ruy Lopez, on both sites. The Italian Game scored 75% in 110 Chess.com games; the Ruy Lopez only 60% in 150, the lowest of any main White opening there. On Lichess the Italian scored 71% in 65 and the Ruy 67% in 112, against a 67% average. Treat it as a blitz tendency, not a verdict on the Ruy: in fast games, an opening with less theory to remember tends to pay.
- Best-scoring White opening (enough games to count): on Chess.com the Italian Game at 75% in 110 games; on Lichess the Nimzo-Larsen Attack at 71% in 235.
- Against 1.d4 systems, the Trompowsky Attack (74% in 67) did a little better than the London System (71% in 90) on Chess.com. Both are low-theory set-ups you can play fast.
- The defence that's hardest to beat: on Chess.com the top players scored least with White against the Slav Defense (58% in 64) and most against the Pirc Defense (82% in 52).
1. On Chess.com: first moves
3,613 games where a top-50 Chess.com blitz player had White (moves with 30+ games listed).
| First move | Games | Share | Top players who used it | Score | vs White avg |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.e4 | 1347 | 37% | 45 | 73% | +0 |
| 1.d4 | 1292 | 36% | 45 | 74% | +1 |
| 1.Nf3 | 519 | 14% | 36 | 74% | +1 |
| 1.c4 | 230 | 6% | 29 | 71% | -2 |
| 1.Nc3 | 76 | 2% | 6 | 64% | -9 |
| 1.b3 | 58 | 2% | 20 | 74% | +1 |
2. On Chess.com: every main White opening, ranked by popularity
Openings White chooses, with the top player on the White side (Chess.com's own opening names, 30+ games). Their White average: 73%.
| Opening | Games as White | Score | vs White avg |
|---|---|---|---|
| English Opening | 368 | 72% | -1 |
| Ruy Lopez | 150 | 60% | -13 |
| Réti Opening | 115 | 73% | +0 |
| Italian Game | 110 | 75% | +2 |
| London System | 90 | 71% | -2 |
| King's Indian Attack | 80 | 75% | +2 |
| Trompowsky Attack | 67 | 74% | +1 |
| Torre Attack | 47 | 68% | -5 |
| Four Knights Game | 46 | 66% | -7 |
| Catalan Opening | 45 | 72% | -1 |
3. On Lichess: every main White opening, ranked by popularity
Top 100 titled Lichess players with White, rows with 80+ games. Their White average: 67%. "Zukertort Opening" is Lichess's name for 1.Nf3 lines; the London System row is move-based (1.d4 and an early Bf4 without c4).
| Opening | Games as White | Score | vs White avg |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zukertort Opening | 860 | 64% | -3 |
| English Opening | 424 | 68% | +1 |
| King's Indian Attack | 338 | 68% | +1 |
| Nimzo-Larsen Attack | 235 | 71% | +4 |
| London System | 219 | 69% | +2 |
| Ruy Lopez | 112 | 67% | +0 |
| Four Knights Game | 106 | 70% | +3 |
| Hungarian Opening | 95 | 64% | -3 |
| Van't Kruijs Opening | 89 | 66% | -1 |
4. On Chess.com: how White scores against each defence
The same top players with White, by the defence their opponent chose (30+ games), best to worst for White. Useful for knowing which defences to respect.
| Defence faced | Games as White | Score | vs White avg |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pirc Defense | 52 | 82% | +9 |
| Semi-Slav Defense | 35 | 81% | +8 |
| Queen's Indian Defense | 41 | 80% | +7 |
| French Defense | 147 | 77% | +4 |
| Caro-Kann Defense | 145 | 76% | +3 |
| Sicilian Defense | 528 | 74% | +1 |
| King's Indian Defense | 157 | 74% | +1 |
| Grünfeld Defense | 36 | 72% | -1 |
| Modern Defense | 81 | 71% | -2 |
| Nimzo-Indian Defense | 85 | 71% | -2 |
| Scandinavian Defense | 64 | 68% | -5 |
| Slav Defense | 64 | 58% | -15 |
5. So which opening should you play with White?
- There is almost no losing choice among the mainstream openings. Apart from the Ruy Lopez on Chess.com, most score within a few points of the White average on both sites, and differences of 2 or 3 points are noise at these sample sizes. Choose by style.
- If you like open, attacking games: 1.e4 with the Italian Game or the Scotch Game. Quick development, clear plans and less theory than the Ruy Lopez.
- If you like solid, low-theory games: 1.d4 with the London System or the Trompowsky Attack, or the flexible 1.Nf3 with the King's Indian Attack. You get the same set-up against almost anything, which is gold in blitz.
- If you like positional, slow-burn games: the English Opening (1.c4) and the Queen's Gambit complex are among the top players' most-played set-ups, and both scored close to the White average.
- Your opponent's Black repertoire matters more than the average. These are averages across 150 players. The person you meet in a Chess.com league, club match or online tournament has favourite defences and weak spots of their own. Check them before you pick your line: the free opponent preview shows any Chess.com or Lichess player's top openings with each colour in seconds.
Playing Black too? See the best chess openings for Black, by the numbers. More from the same data: what the top 50 Chess.com blitz players play, the best openings for blitz, and a guide for every major opening with plans and data.
Method: Chess.com sample is the top 50 of the Chess.com live blitz leaderboard on 2026-10-20, each player's most recent rated standard blitz games (up to 150, at most six monthly archives) from the public Chess.com Published-Data API, 6,843 unique games played 2026-03-21 to 2026-10-20; openings use Chess.com's names from each game's ECO link, with a few families merged (for example the Giuoco Piano into the Italian Game). Chess.com files some Londons as "Indian Game", so its London row undercounts. Lichess sample is the last 150 rated games of the top 100 titled players on the Lichess leaderboards (2026-10-18), grouped by Lichess family name. Games between two sampled players count for both. OpeningSpy is independent and not affiliated with Chess.com or Lichess.