Common mistakes
The opening mistakes your rating makes
What players at each rating get wrong most often in the first ten moves, measured from real Lichess games, and the move to play instead: the one players a level above you choose, not a grandmaster's.
- 367,730Stockfish-analysed Lichess games.
- 7Rating bands, 200 points apart.
- 122Common mistakes, each with a fix.
- September 2026When the games were played.
Pick your Lichess rating
Each rating has the list with explanations, and a quiz: play your move in each position before you see the answer.
- under 100012% play 2...g6 in the Wayward Queen Attack. 20 mistakes listed.
- 1000–120034% play 3.Bc4 in the King's Pawn Opening. 20 mistakes listed.
- 1200–140011% play 4.Ng5 in the Scotch Game. 20 mistakes listed.
- 1400–160010% play 4.Ng5 in the Scotch Game. 20 mistakes listed.
- 1600–180038% play 3...Nc6 in the Petrov's Defence. 20 mistakes listed.
- 1800–200032% play 3...Nc6 in the Petrov's Defence. 19 mistakes listed.
- 2000 and up17% play 3...Nc6 in the Petrov's Defence. 3 mistakes listed.
Play on chess.com? Its ratings run lower than Lichess’s, so start a band or so above your chess.com number. Not sure? Check your rating.
How this was measured
The games are the start of the Lichess open database for September 2026: the first 1500 MB of the file, 4,596,934 rated games. Only the 367,730 that Lichess had already analysed with Stockfish, played at blitz speed or slower, are counted (blitz 210,831, rapid 148,158, classical 8,741). Bullet is left out: its openings are played on reflex.
Each player is placed by their own Lichess rating at the time of the game. Lichess ratings run higher than chess.com’s, so a 1200 here is a weaker player than a 1200 there. Only the first 10 moves of each game are looked at: after that, positions almost never repeat across games.
A move is listed as a mistake when it gives away at least 10 points of winning chance on average, the point at which the game review starts to call a move an inaccuracy, and a position needs at least 40 games at that rating before it is reported. The move recommended instead must give away no more than 5 points, and is the one most often chosen by the next rating band up, so a 1100 is shown what a 1300 plays rather than a grandmaster’s preparation. At the top band it is the band’s own favourite.
“Score” is the average result of the player who made the move: a win counts 1, a draw a half. It is affected by everything that happened later in the game, so read it as a hint, not a verdict.