1.e4
1.e4 · you play white
6 chapters, 8 moves deep, get you to 92% of what you will actually meet. The other 2 cover the last 5%.
Course progress
0 of 845 decisions
0 still learning · 845 not asked yet
2 more chapters are below the depth for your level, together 5% 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
6
Decisions
845 of 1073
0/845
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 58
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 f5
exf5 — played 33% of the time here.
You score 38% after it, against 52% for everything else played from this position, over 3,448 games.
Instead:
d4
55%
d3
54%
Bxg8
49%
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nd4
Nxe5 — played 19% of the time here.
You score 25% after it, against 54% for everything else played from this position, over 1,477 games.
Instead:
d3
56%
Bxf7+
55%
O-O
55%
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Bxc6 dxc6
Nxe5 — played 21% of the time here.
You score 43% after it, against 54% for everything else played from this position, over 1,341 games.
Instead:
h3
56%
O-O
55%
Nc3
53%
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Nxe5 Bc5
Nxc6 — played 73% of the time here.
You score 39% after it, against 63% for everything else played from this position, over 563 games.
Instead:
Nf3
68%
Nd3
59%
1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6
e5 — played 4% of the time here.
You score 39% after it, against 51% for everything else played from this position, over 1,012 games.
Instead:
Nd2
52%
c3
52%
Nc3
51%
What your opponents fall for
— the 5 costliest of 97
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Ng5 d5 5.exd5
Nxd5 — played 26% of the time here.
They score 38% after it, against 51% for everything else played from this position, over 3,491 games.
They should play:
b5
56%
Nd4
52%
Na5
51%
1.e4 d5 2.Nf3 dxe4 3.Ng5 Nf6 4.d3
exd3 — played 65% of the time here.
They score 37% after it, against 55% for everything else played from this position, over 2,018 games.
They should play:
e5
59%
h6
58%
Bf5
57%
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Ng5 h6 5.Nxf7 Kxf7 6.Bc4+
Ke8 — played 34% of the time here.
They score 2% after it, against 53% for everything else played from this position, over 620 games.
They should play:
Kg6
58%
d5
53%
Ke7
52%
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.d4 exd4 5.c3
dxc3 — played 52% of the time here.
They score 36% after it, against 47% for everything else played from this position, over 2,736 games.
They should play:
d3
53%
d6
48%
Qf6
48%
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Ng5
h6 — played 30% of the time here.
They score 38% after it, against 50% for everything else played from this position, over 1,999 games.
They should play:
d5
62%
d6
56%
Bb4+
53%
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.