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English Opening

Moves

White scores

52.8%

Wins more
Loses moreEvenWins more

50.6% won4.3% drawn45.1% lost

Theory 51.6% · Stockfish +0.2

Every level and clock · 96M games

8
7
6
5
4
3
2
a1
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
1.c4
Analyze this line move by move
Your levelnot setDrag to yours ↔
<100010001200140016001800200022002500+

Win rate by rating

White’s score gets better as the rating rises.

RatingScore against evenScoreWonGames
49.9%48.0%2.5M
52.4%50.9%4.7M
52.6%51.0%8.7M
52.6%50.9%14M
52.5%50.6%19M
52.7%50.5%20M
53.1%50.6%15M
53.9%51.0%9.9M
55.5%50.0%2.1M

Every clock · Tap a row to set your level.

What does Black play next?

Black's most played reply is 1…⁠e5, the King's English Variation.

Is the English Opening good?

Yes, for White, across every level and clock.

Everyone52.8
Stockfish51.6

Stockfish at depth 22 · +0.2 for White

Floor 52.8 is the worst score you would still get, 90% confident.

Among the families

18th of 66 families White can choose

Where it wins · rating × clock

<100010001200140016001800200022002500+Every levelUltraBulletBulletBlitzRapidClassical
Best 58.6% · 2200–2499 classicalWorst 43.9% · under 1000 classical

Faint, hatched: few games, never the best or worst. Tap a cell to set your level and clock.

Average game length

How do you score in your own openings?

Leaks reads your recent games and lists the openings you score worst in.

See my openingsSave and drill this line

More English Opening lines

Most played first; each line counts its own games.

All 126 English Opening lines, ranked

126 variations · ranked by floor

Floor — the worst score you would still get, 90% confident.

1
English Opening: King's English, Erbenheimer Gambit1.1K games
62.6%Floor 60.2%
2
English Opening: Anglo-Indian Defense, Scandinavian Defense, Exchange Variation233K games
57.4%Floor 57.2%
3
English Opening: Zilbermints Gambit1.1K games
59.0%Floor 56.6%
English Opening: Agincourt Defense, Catalan Defense, Semi-Slav Defense359K games
56.0%Floor 55.8%
English Opening: Symmetrical Variation, Mecking Variation178K games
55.8%Floor 55.6%
English Opening: Agincourt Defense, Kurajica Defense71K games
55.8%Floor 55.5%
English Opening: Carls-Bremen System1.1M games
55.4%Floor 55.4%
English Opening: Mikenas-Carls Variation830K games
55.5%Floor 55.4%
English Opening: Porcupine Variation603 games
58.6%Floor 55.3%
English Opening: Agincourt Defense, Catalan Defense66K games
55.4%Floor 55.1%
English Opening: Agincourt Defense, Catalan Defense Accepted173K games
55.1%Floor 54.9%
English Opening: Anglo-Indian Defense, Romanishin Variation1.6K games
56.7%Floor 54.6%
English Opening: Anglo-Scandinavian Defense, Löhn Gambit199K games
54.7%Floor 54.6%
English Opening: Myers Defense108K games
54.7%Floor 54.5%
English Opening: Symmetrical Variation, Two Knights, Fianchetto Variation841K games
54.6%Floor 54.5%
English Opening: Neo-Catalan164K games
54.6%Floor 54.4%
English Opening: Agincourt Defense, Bogoljubow Defense40K games
54.7%Floor 54.3%
English Opening: King's English Variation, Two Knights Variation, Fianchetto Line57K games
54.5%Floor 54.2%
English Opening: King's English Variation, Four Knights Variation, Fianchetto Line482K games
54.3%Floor 54.2%
English Opening: King's English Variation, Smyslov Defense24K games
54.6%Floor 54.1%
English Opening: Symmetrical Variation, Fianchetto Variation437K games
54.3%Floor 54.1%
English Opening: Anglo-Indian Defense, Anglo-Grünfeld Variation309K games
54.3%Floor 54.1%
English Opening: Anglo-Scandinavian Defense, Malvinas Variation904K games
54.2%Floor 54.1%
English Opening: King's English Variation, Reversed Sicilian5.9M games
54.1%Floor 54.1%
English Opening: Anglo-Indian Defense, Scandinavian Defense356K games
54.1%Floor 53.9%
English Opening: Symmetrical Variation, Four Knights Variation376K games
54.0%Floor 53.8%
English Opening: Anglo-Scandinavian Defense7.2M games
53.8%Floor 53.8%
English Opening: Agincourt Defense, Neo-Catalan Declined398K games
53.9%Floor 53.8%
English Opening: Anglo-Indian Defense, King's Knight Variation672K games
53.8%Floor 53.7%
English Opening: Anglo-Lithuanian Variation829K games
53.7%Floor 53.6%
English Opening: King's English Variation, Four Knights Variation, Quiet Line478K games
53.7%Floor 53.6%
English Opening: Anglo-Indian Defense, Queen's Indian Formation190K games
53.8%Floor 53.6%
English Opening: King's English Variation, Troger Defense110K games
53.7%Floor 53.5%
English Opening: Anglo-Scandinavian Defense, Schulz Gambit669K games
53.5%Floor 53.4%
English Opening: Symmetrical Variation, Normal Variation2.3M games
53.4%Floor 53.4%
English Opening: King's English Variation, Four Knights Variation, Korchnoi Line51K games
53.7%Floor 53.3%
English Opening: King's English Variation, Botvinnik System, Prickly Pawn Pass System3.2K games
54.7%Floor 53.3%
English Opening: Symmetrical Variation, Ultra-Symmetrical Variation434K games
53.3%Floor 53.2%
English Opening: King's English Variation, Reversed Closed Sicilian2.6M games
53.1%Floor 53.1%
English Opening: King's English Variation, Three Knights System683K games
53.2%Floor 53.1%
English Opening: King's English Variation9.1M games
53.1%Floor 53.1%
English Opening: Anglo-Indian Defense, Queen's Knight Variation3.4M games
53.1%Floor 53.0%
English Opening: King's English Variation, Keres Defense125K games
53.2%Floor 53.0%
English Opening: Anglo-Indian Defense, Grünfeld Formation12K games
53.7%Floor 53.0%
English Opening: Anglo-Indian Defense, Slav Formation9.7K games
53.9%Floor 53.0%
English Opening: Agincourt Defense, Wimpy System108K games
53.2%Floor 52.9%
English Opening: Anglo-Indian Defense, Nimzo-English82K games
53.2%Floor 52.9%
English Opening: Symmetrical Variation, Double Fianchetto30K games
53.3%Floor 52.8%
English Opening: Anglo-Indian Defense, Zvjaginsev-Krasenkow Attack909 games
55.5%Floor 52.8%
English Opening: Symmetrical Variation, Full Symmetry Line227K games
53.0%Floor 52.8%
Every English Opening variation, by name126
Analyze English Opening PositionsSee what each move is worth at your rating, move by move

Methodology

Across every level and clock, the English Opening family scores 52.8% for White, from 96M rated Lichess games across 126 variations, and the low and high ends of its range both round to that same figure at this precision. Win rate, draw rate and loss rate come from games played September 2023 to August 2026.

How the figures are made
Whose games these are
96M rated games played on Lichess (2023-09 to 2026-08). The games are Lichess’s and free for anyone to use. What is ours is the reading of them. Last rebuilt September 2026.
Which games we count
  • Rated games only — nothing casual.
  • Both players within 200 rating points of each other. A mismatch tells you about the gap, not about the opening.
  • At least 2 moves played.
  • A game is filed under White’s rating.
Why every number comes with a range
A number off a few hundred games is a guess. The same number off millions is a fact. The range is what tells them apart, and it is what the lists rank on — so an opening cannot reach the top on a lucky run of forty games. The more games behind a figure, the narrower its range.
What the Floor and Edge at worst are
The Floor is the worst score you would still get, 90% confident: the low end of a figure’s range, not its average. Edge at worst is how far wins run ahead of losses, 90% confident, so above zero, that side wins more than it loses even on a bad day. Each is stated for the rating and clock shown, over the games that reached the position. They are on different scales: a score sits at 50 when the sides are level, an edge at zero.
How much we need before we say anything
An opening page needs 100 games. A figure on it needs 100 games at its rating and clock: short of that the answer reads a wider scope and says so, a table row shows only its count, and a map cell shows a dash. Under 1.0K games a figure is drawn faint, and never leads a list or counts as the best or worst place the line wins. The chaos and trap lists need 500 games overall and 250 games at one rating or clock.