Should you change your chess opening?

Signs you should change your opening

• Your score with it stays under 45% over 30 games or more, while you score better with your other openings at the same time control.
• You lose the same position again and again. The same trap, the same pawn structure where you have no plan, the same early queen attack you never know how to meet.
• You are already worse when the opening ends, in most games, and you do not know why.
• You never get the kind of game you enjoy. An attacking player stuck in slow closed positions plays worse, and a calm player dragged into gambits every game does too.
• You are bored. An opening you no longer want to play is an opening you stop studying.

Signs you should keep it

• Your games are lost later: a blunder on move 25, a lost endgame, a time scramble. A new opening fixes none of that.
• You have played it fewer than 20 or 30 times. A few losses in a row say little; a score over 30 games says a lot.
• You lose to one line only. Then learn the answer to that line instead of changing everything: often a single move is enough.
• You score well with it, even if it is not the opening the top players use. At club level, the opening you know beats the opening that is in fashion.

The fastest way to know is to look at your numbers. Chess X-Ray reads your chess.com or Lichess games and finds the opening positions where you keep playing the same losing move. The tarot at the top of this page gives you the short version for free: your score with each opening over the last three months.

How to change your opening without losing rating

1. Change one side at a time: your White opening, or your answer to 1.e4, or your answer to 1.d4. Never all three at once.
2. Learn the first five moves and, more than the moves, the idea behind them, then the one trap everybody falls into.
3. Play it in rapid or casual games first, not in bullet: you need time to think the first 20 games.
4. Review every game you lose with it and find the move where it turned. That is the next thing to learn.
5. After 20 games, compare your score with the old opening. Keep the one that works.

What to switch to

The best switch keeps what you already know. A few common moves, with White first:

• You play the London System and find it dull: try the Queen’s Gambit. Same 1.d4, but you fight for the center with c4 and get more active positions.
• You play the Italian Game and the games get slow after 3...Bc5 or 3...Nf6: try the Scotch Game. The same first two moves, and the center opens on move three.
• You play 2.Qh5 or other early queen attacks: try the Vienna Game. You keep the quick attack on f7 and e5, without the queen getting chased around.
• With Black against 1.e4, you play the Scandinavian and your queen gets chased: try the Caro-Kann. You still challenge e4 with ...d5, but you prepare it with ...c6 and recapture with a pawn.
• You play 1...e5 and keep losing to the Italian traps: try the Caro-Kann or the French. Solid structures, fewer early tactics against your king.
• You play the Sicilian and drown in theory: try 1...e5 or the Caro-Kann. Less to learn, and the plans are clear.
• With Black against 1.d4, you play the King’s Indian and there is too much to remember: try the Slav or the Queen’s Gambit Declined. Solid, and the same setup works against most of what White plays.

Not sure? Take the tarot above with your username, and answer "No, give me something new" to the last question: it draws for your style and gives less weight to the opening you play now.

How many openings do you need?

Three, at club level: one with White, one against 1.e4 and one against 1.d4. Beyond that, every new opening steals study time from the three you play every day. For a full list of beginner-friendly choices, see the best chess openings for beginners.

Frequently asked questions