Tarrasch Defense
Moves
Black scores
49.1%
About evenEveryone
Loses moreEvenWins more
46.6% won4.9% drawn48.5% lost
Theory 46.6% · Stockfish +0.4
Every level and clock · 2.8M games
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h8
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3...c5
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Win rate by rating
Black’s score falls away as the rating rises.
| Rating | Score against even | Score | Won | Games |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50.0% | 48.7% | 30K | ||
| 48.6% | 47.3% | 106K | ||
| 48.6% | 47.1% | 243K | ||
| 48.5% | 46.8% | 413K | ||
| 48.9% | 46.9% | 533K | ||
| 49.5% | 47.1% | 566K | ||
| 49.8% | 46.9% | 463K | ||
| 49.2% | 45.5% | 362K | ||
| 46.9% | 41.2% | 79K |
Every clock · Tap a row to set your level.
What comes next?
The most played continuation is 4.cxd5 exd5, the Tarrasch Defense.
Is the Tarrasch Defense good?
Even for Black, across every level and clock.
Everyone49.1
Stockfish46.6
Stockfish at depth 22 · +0.4 for White
Floor 49.0 is the worst score you would still get, 90% confident.
Among the families
19th of 65 families Black can choose
Where it wins · rating × clock
Best 53.2% · 1400–1599 ultrabulletWorst 40.4% · 2500+ rapid
Faint, hatched: few games, never the best or worst. –: too few to score. Tap a cell to set your level and clock.
Average game length
0204060This line 34All openings 34
How do you score in your own openings?
Leaks reads your recent games and lists the openings you score worst in.
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More Tarrasch Defense lines
Most played first; each line counts its own games.
- Symmetrical Variation49.1%4.e3 Nf6 5.Nf3 Nc6903K games
- Two Knights Variation47.8%4.cxd5 exd5 5.Nf3348K games
- Classical Variation47.5%4.cxd5 exd5 5.Nf3 Nc6 6.g3 Nf6 7.Bg2 Be7 8.O-O O-O103K games
- Dubov Tarrasch51.0%4.cxd5 exd5 5.Nf3 Nc6 6.g3 Nf6 7.Bg2 cxd4 8.Nxd4 Bc559K games
- Prague Variation46.5%4.cxd5 exd5 5.Nf3 Nc6 6.g3 Nf648K games
- Classical Variation, Carlsbad Variation47.6%4.cxd5 exd5 5.Nf3 Nc6 6.g3 Nf6 7.Bg2 Be7 8.O-O O-O 9.Bg527K games
All 25 Tarrasch Defense lines, ranked
25 variations · ranked by floor
Floor — the worst score you would still get, 90% confident.
1
Tarrasch Defense: von Hennig Gambit14K games
2
Tarrasch Defense: Schara Gambit155K games
3
Tarrasch Defense: Classical Variation, Classical Tarrasch Gambit5.3K games
Tarrasch Defense: Dubov Tarrasch59K games
Tarrasch Defense: Classical Variation, Advance Variation25K games
Tarrasch Defense: Tarrasch Gambit1.0K games
Tarrasch Defense1.0M games
Tarrasch Defense: Classical Variation, Spassky Variation1.4K games
Tarrasch Defense: Symmetrical Variation903K games
Tarrasch Defense: Prague Variation, Main Line12K games
Tarrasch Defense: Classical Variation, Bogoljubow Variation1.8K games
Tarrasch Defense: Classical Variation, Main Line4.4K games
Tarrasch Defense: Swedish Variation6.4K games
Tarrasch Defense: Two Knights Variation348K games
Tarrasch Defense: Classical Variation103K games
Tarrasch Defense: Classical Variation, Carlsbad Variation27K games
Tarrasch Defense: Classical Variation, Endgame Variation17K games
Tarrasch Defense: Marshall Gambit16K games
Tarrasch Defense: Prague Variation48K games
Tarrasch Defense: Wagner Variation15K games
Tarrasch Defense: Classical Variation, Petursson Variation1.9K games
Tarrasch Defense: Classical Variation, Réti Variation13K games
Tarrasch Defense: Rubinstein System11K games
Tarrasch Defense: Grünfeld Gambit799 games
Tarrasch Defense: Swedish Variation, Central Break144 games
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Methodology
Across every level and clock, the Tarrasch Defense family scores 49.1% for Black, with a range running from 49.0% to 49.1% around that figure, from 2.8M rated Lichess games across 25 variations. 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
- 2.8M 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.