23K games from Lichess · Updated January 2026
At all ratings, the King's Gambit Accepted: Kieseritzky Gambit, Cotter Gambit has a 54.2% expected score for White (we're 90% confident it's between 53.7% and 54.8%), based on 23K Lichess games.
Deep-dive datasets for this opening
Declines with rating: 54% → 27%
Best in Bullet (54%), worst in Classical (38%)
Click any cell to filter. Green = above 50%, Red = below 50%.
| Rating | UB | Bulle | Blitz | Rapid | Class |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0-999 | — | — | |||
| 1000-1199 | — | — | |||
| 1200-1399 | — | ||||
| 1400-1599 | — | ||||
| 1600-1799 | — | ||||
| 1800-1999 | — | ||||
| 2000-2199 | — | ||||
| 2200-2499 | — | — | |||
| 2500+ | — | — | — | — |
Expected score matrix by rating bracket and time control
The King's Gambit Accepted: Kieseritzky Gambit, Cotter Gambit has a 52.8% (90% CI: 52.3%-53.4%) win rate for white, based on 23K rated games from Lichess.
The King's Gambit Accepted: Kieseritzky Gambit, Cotter Gambit performs best at 1600-1799 Elo with a 53.3% win rate for white (6.3K games). Win rate tends to decline at higher ratings as opponents know the theory better.
Bullet (53.8%) outperforms Classical (37.6%) by 16.2%. Choose your time control wisely.
The King's Gambit Accepted: Kieseritzky Gambit, Cotter Gambit has a sharpness score of 97.3 (very decisive), meaning 97.3% of games end decisively. Average game length is 29 moves.
At 1000-1199 Elo, the King's Gambit Accepted: Kieseritzky Gambit, Cotter Gambit has a 53.2% (90% CI: 48.2%-58.1%) win rate for white, based on 274 Lichess games. Average game length is 23 moves with a 1.6% draw rate.
At 1200-1399 Elo, the King's Gambit Accepted: Kieseritzky Gambit, Cotter Gambit has a 53.9% (90% CI: 51.2%-56.6%) win rate for white, based on 888 Lichess games. Average game length is 25 moves with a 1.4% draw rate.
At 1400-1599 Elo, the King's Gambit Accepted: Kieseritzky Gambit, Cotter Gambit has a 52.5% (90% CI: 50.9%-54.1%) win rate for white, based on 2.8K Lichess games. Average game length is 27 moves with a 2.7% draw rate.
At 1600-1799 Elo, the King's Gambit Accepted: Kieseritzky Gambit, Cotter Gambit has a 53.3% (90% CI: 52.3%-54.4%) win rate for white, based on 6.3K Lichess games. Average game length is 28 moves with a 2.4% draw rate.
At 1800-1999 Elo, the King's Gambit Accepted: Kieseritzky Gambit, Cotter Gambit has a 52.4% (90% CI: 51.5%-53.3%) win rate for white, based on 8.2K Lichess games. Average game length is 30 moves with a 2.8% draw rate.
At 2000-2199 Elo, the King's Gambit Accepted: Kieseritzky Gambit, Cotter Gambit has a 52.5% (90% CI: 51.2%-53.7%) win rate for white, based on 4.2K Lichess games. Average game length is 31 moves with a 3.3% draw rate.
At 2200-2499 Elo, the King's Gambit Accepted: Kieseritzky Gambit, Cotter Gambit has a 55.3% (90% CI: 51.9%-58.7%) win rate for white, based on 576 Lichess games. Average game length is 33 moves with a 3.0% draw rate.
In Bullet games, the King's Gambit Accepted: Kieseritzky Gambit, Cotter Gambit has a 53.8% (90% CI: 52.6%-55.0%) win rate for white (4.8K Lichess games). Draw rate is 1.9%.
In Blitz games, the King's Gambit Accepted: Kieseritzky Gambit, Cotter Gambit has a 52.7% (90% CI: 52.0%-53.4%) win rate for white (15K Lichess games). Draw rate is 2.9%.
In Rapid games, the King's Gambit Accepted: Kieseritzky Gambit, Cotter Gambit has a 52.4% (90% CI: 50.9%-53.8%) win rate for white (3.3K Lichess games). Draw rate is 3.3%.
The King's Gambit Accepted: Kieseritzky Gambit, Cotter Gambit is statistically favors white with a 52.8% (90% CI: 52.3%-53.4%) win rate across all ratings. It performs best at 1600-1799 Elo. Your results depend on your rating, time control, and how well you know the typical plans.