Choosing your openings: what club players play, and what to learn
The opening you choose matters less than how well you understand it. Here is what club players rated 1000 to 1800 really play on Lichess, what the results say, and a simple way to choose the best openings for you: one system against everything, or open games with clear plans and traps.
What club players really play
The Lichess opening explorer shows what is played at every level. Unless another year is given, the figures below come from Lichess games between players rated 1000 to 1800, blitz, rapid and classical, October 2025 to October 2026: 290 million games.
White opens with 1.e4 in 64.5% of these games and with 1.d4 in 23.8%. No other first move reaches 3%. So with Black you will face 1.e4 in nearly two games out of three, and 1.d4 in about one in four: those are the two answers to prepare first.
Against 1.e4
1…e5 is the most common reply, at 48.6%. Then come the Sicilian, 1…c5, at 13.2%, the Scandinavian, 1…d5, at 10.1%, the French, 1…e6, at 9.1%, and the Caro-Kann, 1…c6, at 7.7%.
The Caro-Kann has grown the most. At the same level on Lichess, 1…c6 was 3.9% of the replies to 1.e4 in 2020, 6.7% in 2023 and 7.7% in 2025–26: it has nearly doubled. Over the same years, 1…e5 fell from 52.5% to 48.6%, and the Sicilian from 16.3% to 13.2%.
After 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6, White’s most common third moves are the Italian, 3.Bc4, at 42.5%, the Scotch, 3.d4, at 19.8%, and the Spanish, 3.Bb5, at 18.7%. So the Scotch, which we come back to below, is chosen in about one game in five.
Against 1.d4
1…d5 answers 1.d4 in 49.7% of games, 1…Nf6 in 13.9%, 1…e6 in 9.7% and 1…e5 in 7.7%. After 1.d4 d5, White plays the Queen’s Gambit in 31.9% of games and the London System, 2.Bf4, in 23.1%: at this level, the London is the second most common way to meet 1…d5.
Does the opening decide the result?
Much less than you might think. In the same games, White wins 50%, draws 4% and loses 46% after 1.e4, and wins 51%, draws 4% and loses 45% after 1.d4. Against the Caro-Kann, 1.e4 c6, and against the Sicilian, 1.e4 c5, Black wins 49%. The Scotch, 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4, gives White 53% wins, and the London, 1.d4 d5 2.Bf4, 52%.
The gaps are a few points, and they describe the players as much as the openings: the people who choose an opening are not a random sample. At this level, no opening wins the game for you. The one that helps most is the one whose positions you understand.
How to choose the best opening for you
A good opening for a club player passes three tests:
- You meet it often. After 1.e4, 1…e5 comes in nearly half the games, and after 1.d4, 1…d5 in about half: an answer to those is used week after week.
- It works against almost anything. The fewer replies that need their own answer, the less you have to learn before your next game.
- You understand its plans. When your opponent leaves the book, you still know where your pieces go and what to aim for.
Two kinds of opening pass those tests: a system that you play against almost everything, and open games with clear plans and traps. The choice between them is mostly a matter of taste.
One system against everything: the London
With 1.d4, the London System puts the pieces on the same squares against almost every defence: 2.Bf4 before e3, then Nf3, c3, Bd3 and Nbd2, and castling. You learn one setup and three plans rather than a tree of lines, which suits players with little time for theory. Our article on how to play the London System shows the setup piece by piece, and The London System in Twelve Lessons takes Black’s replies one by one.
Open games with plans and traps: the Scotch
With 1.e4, the Scotch Game meets 1…e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 with 3.d4 and opens the centre at once. After 3…exd4 4.Nxd4, White keeps the e4 pawn, more space and open lines. There is less theory than in the Spanish, and the same ideas come back in every line. Read our guide to the Scotch Game, or see The Scotch Game in Twelve Lessons.
The two do not cover the same ground. The Scotch answers 1…e5, a little under half of the replies to 1.e4, so you still need answers to the Sicilian, the Scandinavian, the French and the Caro-Kann. The London is wider: the same setup meets 1…d5, 1…Nf6 and most other replies, and only 1…c5 and 1…e5 call for something else.
Learn plans and traps, not long lines
Twenty moves of memorised theory help little when your opponent leaves the main line early. What carries over from game to game is the plan: where the pieces go, which pawn break to aim for, which squares to watch. Traps carry over too: each opening has its own, and once you know them from both sides, you can set them and avoid them. Both of our opening courses are built that way: each lesson on a line gives the moves, the plans of both sides, a model game and the trap to know, then two exercises from real games.
What to play: a simple plan
- Choose one opening for White: the London if you play 1.d4 or want one setup for everything, the Scotch if you play 1.e4 and like open positions.
- Learn the first moves and what each one is for, then the plans, then the traps.
- Play it in your next ten games, whatever the result, and look up the line after each game.
- Choose your Black openings the same way: one answer to 1.e4 and one to 1.d4, picked for their plans.
Both books have their first three lessons free on Lichess, so you can try the method before you choose: the London study and the Scotch study. The two courses and 300 Chess Puzzles are in our library, each a PDF to print.