Chess Openings Explorer
Explore a curated tree of well-known chess openings by clicking through named lines, or play moves directly on the board — arrow thickness and shade show how often each move is played. Win, draw, and loss rates come from a sample of high-rated Lichess games.
About this position
The starting position of a chess game: all 32 pieces on their home squares, White to move. Pick a first move to see the opening it leads to.
Move flow hidden.
Starting position
Pieces by Colin M.L. Burnett, recolored (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Starting Position
Stockfish position — beyond the bookEngine evaluation
Stockfish 18, depth 18. Positive favors White.
Game outcomes
Most-played next moves
| Move | Games | White win% |
|---|
Stats computed from 350,000 high-rated games (June 2020; one player 2400+ Elo, opponent 2200+) via the Lichess Elite Database, itself drawn from Lichess's public game archive (CC0-licensed).
Beyond the book
Popular chess openings you can explore
Every opening in the tree is labelled with its ECO code, the classification system used by chess books and databases. Here are some of the best-known lines and the moves that define them.
- Ruy Lopez (C60): 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5
- Italian Game (C50): 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4
- Sicilian Defense (B20): 1.e4 c5
- French Defense (C00): 1.e4 e6
- Caro-Kann Defense (B10): 1.e4 c6
- Scandinavian Defense (B01): 1.e4 d5
- Queen's Gambit (D06): 1.d4 d5 2.c4
- Slav Defense (D10): 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6
- King's Indian Defense (E61): 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3
- English Opening (A10): 1.c4