Openings › World Chess Championship 2026 › Sindarov's openings
First-move watch
Javokhir Sindarov's openings with White and Black
With club results by Lichess rating
72.5%
of Sindarov's White games opened 1.e4 · Lichess broadcasts, Jan 2024 to Sep 2026
182 of 251! Sindarov's 1.e4 habit. Gukesh: 106 of 229 (46.3%).
502 games in Lichess broadcast files from Jan 2024 to Sep 2026, all time controls counted together (337 of 502 carry a declared time control). Games of the 2026 match are not included yet; see the match page.
Javokhir Sindarov opened 1.e4 in 182 of 251 games with White and met 1.e4 with 1...e5 in 83 of 120 (Lichess broadcast games, Jan 2024 to Sep 2026).
With White: 251 games
First moves: 1.e4 182, 1.d4 29, 1.c4 22, 1.Nf3 18. Results in these games: 129 won, 89 drawn, 33 lost (173.5 points).
Javokhir Sindarov 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 251 games.
Game data: Lichess broadcasts · CC BY-SA 4.0
With Black: 251 games
Against 1.e4 (120 games): 1...e5 83, 1...c5 37. Against 1.d4 (91 games): 1...Nf6 66, 1...d5 24, 1...e6 1. Results in these games: 78 won, 136 drawn, 37 lost (146 points).
Javokhir Sindarov 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 251 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 Sindarov'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+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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) |
| 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) |
| English Opening 1.c4 |
52.3% (941) | 53.3% (2,182) | 53.5% (3,932) | 53.0% (4,212) | 53.8% (2,742) |
| 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) |
| 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) |
| 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) |
More about the match
- World Chess Championship 2026: schedule and both players' openings
- Gukesh's openings with White and Black
- Openings in every title-match game since 2021
Download: Sindarov'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 (14205483, with the name Sindarov, Javokhir), 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.