Openings › World Chess Championship 2026 › Gukesh's openings
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Gukesh D's openings with White and Black
With club results by Lichess rating
30.1%
of Gukesh's White games opened 1.d4 · Lichess broadcasts, Jan 2024 to Sep 2026
Gukesh opens 1.d4 in 69 of 229 White games. Sindarov: 29 of 251 (11.6%).
452 games in Lichess broadcast files from Jan 2024 to Sep 2026, all time controls counted together (199 of 452 carry a declared time control). Games of the 2026 match are not included yet; see the match page.
Gukesh D opened 1.e4 in 106 of 229 games with White and met 1.e4 with 1...e5 in 64 of 114 (Lichess broadcast games, Jan 2024 to Sep 2026).
With White: 229 games
First moves: 1.e4 106, 1.d4 69, 1.Nf3 35, 1.c4 19. Results in these games: 75 won, 86 drawn, 68 lost (118 points).
Gukesh D with White: opening families with 3 or more games, next to club results at Lichess 1500–1799 (the rating level with the most games in our sample). Each bar is the family's share of these 229 games.
Game data: Lichess broadcasts · CC BY-SA 4.0
With Black: 223 games
Against 1.e4 (114 games): 1...e5 64, 1...c5 25, 1...c6 20. Against 1.d4 (71 games): 1...Nf6 59, 1...d5 11, 1...c5 1. Results in these games: 67 won, 73 drawn, 83 lost (103.5 points).
Gukesh D with Black: opening families with 3 or more games, next to club results at Lichess 1500–1799 (the rating level with the most games in our sample). Each bar is the family's share of these 223 games.
Game data: Lichess broadcasts · CC BY-SA 4.0
"Score" = wins plus half the draws, divided by games. These are counts of what happened in these games; they say nothing about cause. Club numbers are attached by position (the same position after the same number of moves), not by opening name. Club ratings are Lichess ratings (average of both players); they are not FIDE or Chess.com ratings.
The same opening positions in club games, at every Lichess rating level
For each opening page position that Gukesh's games reached: White's and Black's score (wins plus half the draws, divided by games) in rated Lichess games from the Sep 2026 sample, by Lichess rating level.
| Opening page | Under 1200 | 1200–1499 | 1500–1799 | 1800–2099 | 2100+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sicilian Defense 1.e4 c5 |
48.5% (2,885) | 49.8% (7,048) | 51.0% (12,780) | 50.7% (13,061) | 50.4% (6,723) |
| Ruy Lopez 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 |
53.3% (1,290) | 53.9% (2,141) | 55.2% (2,199) | 52.3% (1,511) | 51.9% (715) |
| Italian Game 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 |
51.6% (3,545) | 51.3% (5,309) | 52.5% (5,313) | 50.7% (2,626) | 51.7% (704) |
| English Opening 1.c4 |
52.3% (941) | 53.3% (2,182) | 53.5% (3,932) | 53.0% (4,212) | 53.8% (2,742) |
| Caro-Kann Defense 1.e4 c6 |
50.0% (2,721) | 50.3% (5,163) | 49.7% (7,288) | 50.9% (6,376) | 51.9% (2,971) |
| Queen's Gambit 1.d4 d5 2.c4 |
56.5% (1,737) | 53.0% (3,411) | 53.0% (5,307) | 53.4% (4,360) | 51.1% (1,831) |
| Scotch Game 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 |
55.3% (1,489) | 55.7% (2,472) | 54.1% (2,682) | 52.6% (1,399) | 52.8% (407) |
| London System 1.d4 d5 2.Bf4 |
53.2% (1,998) | 53.0% (2,767) | 52.3% (2,963) | 52.5% (1,761) | 55.3% (427) |
More about the match
- World Chess Championship 2026: schedule and both players' openings
- Sindarov's openings with White and Black
- Openings in every title-match game since 2021
Download: Gukesh's openings (CSV, CC BY-SA 4.0).
Sources and credits
Game data: Lichess broadcast database, monthly files Jan 2024 to Sep 2026, licence CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes by Chess Opening Scores: we picked this player's games by the FIDE id in the data (46616543, with the name Gukesh D / Gukesh, D), kept finished standard games (no games from a set-up position, no engine opponents, duplicates removed), counted openings and results, and added opening names and ECO codes from the free Lichess opening list and club statistics. The sections marked "Game data: Lichess broadcasts" are shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Opening names: lichess-org/chess-openings (CC0), matched by position. Club statistics: Lichess open database (CC0), 456,087 rated games from the Sep 2026 sample.
Player data: names and game results as published in the Lichess broadcast. To ask for a correction or removal, write to contact@chessopeningscores.com.