Top 5 Most Popular Chess Openings For Black

If you have studied chess, opening theory should not be a new term for you. The chess opening theory covers sequences of moves and variations that players can deploy to avoid getting into trouble at the initial stages of the game. In this article, we try to look at such openings for black and their popularity among chess players including the master level players. We will provide the number of games a particular opening has been used and subsequently analyze the popularity and the possible reasons behind it.

To collect statistics, we used lichess.org chess database one of the widely used chess platforms in the world. Our assumption is that this is a good enough sample size from all available chess games to draw conclusions. However, it is worth noting that the numbers we present here are only valid in the context of lichess.org as of the 21^st of March 2022.

The following table lists some of the well-known openings for black typically called Defense and some take the form of gambits. The second and third columns show the number of games played by all chess players and master level players respectively. If you are passionate about one of these openings and would like to get a unique chess t-shirt representing that opening, the last column will take you to a chess t-shirt produced by zeroblunders.com.

Without any doubt, Sicilian Defense takes the crown for being the most popular opening for black among all chess players. This includes close to 60 million total games and over 500,000 master-level games.

The five most popular openings among all chess players are Sicilian, French, Scandinavian, Caro-Kann and Pirc Defense. We were surprised to see Pirc in the top 5, the main reasons could be its simplicity to set up at the beginner levels for any opening of white and straightforward plans after initial setup.

In contrast, the Sicilian, French, King's Indian, Slav and Caro-Kann Defense are the most popular openings among master-level players. These are a solid set of openings with a large amount of opening theory and a high win/draw rate for black.

It is worth mentioning, the least popular openings for black as well. They are Stafford Gambit, Benko Gambit, Grünfeld Defense, Budapest Gambit and Benoni Defense. Even though these openings have existed for decades and have not gained wide popularity is an eye-opening fact. Although, there could be many reasons the main issues could be the complexity and low win rate.

In conclusion, as shown in the image above undisputedly Sicilian is the most popular defense for black regardless of the level of the chess player. The Caro-Kann and French show similar statistics.  These are solid openings with good success rates for the player playing with black pieces. Therefore, as a chess player, it is important to study these popular openings and come up with solid plans because the likelihood of facing them at your next game is statistically high. Alternatively, gaining expertise in less popular openings could be a valuable tool to surprise your opponent and ultimately win.

About the Author: zeroblunders.com is an apparel company that offers creative and unique designs focused on Chess, the game we all love. Our mission is to show our passion for chess and its lifestyle by producing clothing that ultimately promotes chess. If you live within 64 squares, we hope our designs will allow you to showcase your dedication outside of it.

You May Also Like