1.d4
1.d4 · you play white
5 chapters, 8 moves deep, get you to 92% of what you will actually meet. The other 1 covers the last 3%.
Course progress
0 of 730 decisions
0 still learning · 730 not asked yet
1 more chapter is below the depth for your level, together 3% of what you meet.
Drill this opening
Any chapter or study, asked cold — whether or not you owe it. Nothing here is unlocked by anything else.
At your level
Level
Improving
Depth
16 plies of this opening
Chapters
5
Decisions
730 of 1240
0/730
How this goes wrong at your level
Counted from 4,500,000 games by players in your band. These are moves that get played often and then lose — no engine was asked for an opinion.
What you are most likely to fall for
— the 5 costliest of 22
1.d4 e5 2.dxe5 Nc6 3.Nf3 Qe7 4.Bf4 Qb4+ 5.Bd2 Qxb2
Bc3 — played 20% of the time here.
You score 16% after it, against 56% for everything else played from this position, over 659 games.
Instead:
Nc3
56%
1.d4 e5 2.dxe5 Bc5 3.Nf3 d6 4.exd6 Ne7
dxe7 — played 24% of the time here.
You score 20% after it, against 55% for everything else played from this position, over 356 games.
Instead:
Bf4
60%
Nc3
59%
Bg5
59%
1.d4 e5 2.dxe5 Nc6 3.Nf3 Qe7 4.Bf4 Qb4+ 5.Bd2 Qxb2 6.Nc3 Nb4
Rb1 — played 11% of the time here.
You score 14% after it, against 59% for everything else played from this position, over 134 games.
Instead:
Nd4
62%
Rc1
53%
1.d4 e5 2.dxe5 Nc6 3.Nf3 Qe7 4.Bf4 Qb4+
Nbd2 — played 8% of the time here.
You score 26% after it, against 45% for everything else played from this position, over 311 games.
Instead:
Bd2
47%
Nc3
42%
c3
28%
1.d4 c5 2.dxc5 e6
b4 — played 20% of the time here.
You score 39% after it, against 49% for everything else played from this position, over 565 games.
Instead:
c3
58%
Nf3
51%
Bf4
50%
What your opponents fall for
— the 5 costliest of 16
1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.e3
b5 — played 18% of the time here.
They score 32% after it, against 45% for everything else played from this position, over 1,864 games.
They should play:
g6
53%
Nd7
50%
a6
49%
1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.e3 b5 4.a4
c6 — played 58% of the time here.
They score 24% after it, against 37% for everything else played from this position, over 884 games.
They should play:
bxa4
40%
Ba6
38%
Bd7
35%
1.d4 g6 2.Bh6
Bg7 — played 60% of the time here.
They score 2% after it, against 84% for everything else played from this position, over 84 games.
They should play:
Bxh6
83%
1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 e6 3.Bg5
c5 — played 5% of the time here.
They score 7% after it, against 46% for everything else played from this position, over 140 games.
They should play:
Be7
50%
Ne7
48%
Nf6
45%
1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 c6 5.Nf3
h6 — played 6% of the time here.
They score 36% after it, against 48% for everything else played from this position, over 270 games.
They should play:
Bd6
54%
Nbd7
53%
dxc4
52%
Found by testing 94,688 decisions in your band’s games and keeping only those where the drop in score is more than four standard errors below the alternatives. About 3.17 of these would be expected by chance alone.
Your moves are chosen by the engine and checked against 3,439,091 games (Lichess Elite (2500+ vs 2300+), 2024-12 → 2025-11); their replies are what people actually play. Evaluations from Lichess Stockfish evaluations (database.lichess.org) (CC0 1.0 Universal), covering 87% of this course.