King's Knight Opening: Win Rate by Lichess Rating

King's Knight Opening · 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 · CC0 name list

At 1500–1799 (Lichess rating), White scored 52.4% in 219,369 King's Knight Opening games (±0.2; games from Oct 2025–Sep 2026).

White won 50.5% of them, Black won 45.6%, and 3.9% were drawn.

White scores above 50% at this level (outside the margin)

In games from Oct 2025–Sep 2026, White scored 52.4% (±0.2) with the King's Knight Opening in sampled Lichess games at the 1500–1799 Lichess rating level (219,369 games). Observed results, not causation.

Data period: games from 1 Oct 2025 – 30 Sep 2026 (sample of the Lichess open database) · Page updated: 9 Oct 2026

53.3%

White's score at Lichess ratings under 1200 · 177,313 games, Oct 2025–Sep 2026 sample

White scores 53.3% under 1200 and 51.1% at 2100+.

Position after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3. 773,425 games in this sample reached it — 1,098 of them by a different move order.

At a glance

In this sample, White's score ranged from 51.1% (2100+) to 53.3% (Under 1200).
Treat this spread with caution: the margins are approximate (see How it works).
It appeared most often in the Under 1200 group (21.7% of that group's games).
Draws were most common in the 2100+ group (9.3%).

These are observed results for the selected games (rated, players within 200 rating points of each other). They describe what happened — they do not prove the opening caused the result.

Results by Lichess rating level

Each row shows how the King's Knight Opening games at one rating level ended: White wins, draws and Black wins, across all time controls combined. Rating level is the average Lichess rating of both players.

White won drawn Black won. King's Knight Opening — results by Lichess rating level, all time controls combined (minimum 300 games per row).

Under 1200177,313 gamesIn the headline

White wins 51.4% · draws 3.7% · Black wins 44.9% · White's score 53.3% ±0.2 · how common 21.7%
1200–1499222,959 games

White wins 51.0% · draws 3.5% · Black wins 45.6% · White's score 52.7% ±0.2 · how common 18.6%
1500–1799219,369 games

White wins 50.5% · draws 3.9% · Black wins 45.6% · White's score 52.4% ±0.2 · how common 13.7%
1800–2099117,302 games

White wins 50.1% · draws 4.5% · Black wins 45.5% · White's score 52.3% ±0.3 · how common 8.8%
2100+36,482 gamesCompared with

White wins 46.5% · draws 9.3% · Black wins 44.2% · White's score 51.1% ±0.5 · how common 5.3%

"White's score" = wins + half of draws. "±" is an approximate 95% margin based only on the number of games. It does not cover sampling bias or related games (the same players appear many times), so real uncertainty is larger. "How common" = share of all sampled games at that level that reached this position. Ratings are Lichess ratings; they are not interchangeable with Chess.com or FIDE ratings.

Compare it with another choice from the same position, at the Lichess level and time control you choose: Compare in Find Your Opening (the comparison needs JavaScript)

Results by time control

Each row shows how the King's Knight Opening games ended in one Lichess time control, across all rating levels combined.

King's Knight Opening — results by time control, all rating levels combined (minimum 300 games per row)
Time control	Games	White wins	Draws	Black wins	White's score
Bullet	174,851	50.2%	2.9%	46.9%	51.7%
Blitz	387,736	50.5%	4.2%	45.2%	52.6%
Rapid	203,347	51.0%	4.6%	44.4%	53.3%
Classical	7,491	52.7%	5.4%	41.9%	55.4%

This table and the rating rows are separate summaries: rating levels are not split by time control here, and time controls are not split by rating. Observed results only; approximate uncertainty applies as above.

Most played replies for Black at each level

Top replies with at least 150 games. "Score" is Black's score after that reply (wins + half of draws). These comparisons alone can't show that one reply is reliably better — the margins are approximate and stronger or weaker players may prefer different replies.

Replies to 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 by Lichess rating level, all time controls combined
Rating level	Reply · share · games · score
Under 1200	2...Nc6 ·60.0% · 106,217 · 47.5% ±0.3 2...d6 ·12.3% · 21,816 · 47.2% ±0.6 2...Nf6 ·12.0% · 21,270 · 45.4% ±0.7
1200–1499	2...Nc6 ·64.5% · 143,632 · 47.2% ±0.3 2...d6 ·15.3% · 34,173 · 47.9% ±0.5 2...Nf6 ·9.5% · 21,082 · 47.8% ±0.7
1500–1799	2...Nc6 ·64.1% · 140,418 · 47.2% ±0.3 2...d6 ·16.4% · 36,061 · 47.8% ±0.5 2...Nf6 ·9.7% · 21,250 · 48.3% ±0.7
1800–2099	2...Nc6 ·66.1% · 77,530 · 47.3% ±0.3 2...d6 ·13.6% · 15,897 · 46.6% ±0.8 2...Nf6 ·10.7% · 12,492 · 49.2% ±0.9
2100+	2...Nc6 ·72.8% · 26,535 · 48.7% ±0.6 2...Nf6 ·11.7% · 4,258 · 49.1% ±1.4 2...d6 ·7.2% · 2,614 · 47.8% ±1.9

Up next: related positions with a page

Deeper line: King's Knight Opening 2...Nc6 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6
Deeper line: Philidor Defense 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6
Deeper line: Petrov's Defense 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6
Related line: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 (Italian Game)
Related line: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 (Scotch Game)
Related line: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 (Ruy Lopez)
Related line: 1.c4 (English Opening)
Related line: 1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.f4 (Vienna Game: Vienna Gambit)
Related line: 1.e4 e5 2.d4 exd4 3.c3 (Danish Gambit)
Related line: 1.Nf3 d5 2.c4 (Réti Opening)
Related line: 1.e4 d5 2.Nf3 (Zukertort Opening: Tennison Gambit)
Related line: 1.e4 e6 2.Nf3 (French Defense: Knight Variation)

Other choices from the same position for White: each one's own level and score, as on its page
Opening	Lichess rating level	Games	White's score
vs Bishop's Opening 1.e4 e5 2.Bc4	1500–1799	40,468	53.0% ±0.5
vs Vienna Game 1.e4 e5 2.Nc3	1500–1799	30,703	53.0% ±0.5
vs Center Game 1.e4 e5 2.d4	1500–1799	24,136	53.8% ±0.6
vs King's Gambit 1.e4 e5 2.f4	1500–1799	28,113	52.9% ±0.6

Each row is a separate page with its own games. A difference smaller than the two margins combined is no clear difference. Observed results, not causation.

Download these numbers: King's Knight Opening (CSV), released under CC0. For move-by-move exploration with your own filters, see the free Lichess opening explorer. This independent page lists each rating level and each time control in its own row for comparison.