Common mistakes
Opening mistakes at 2000 and up
The moves Lichess players rated 2000 and up get wrong most often in the first ten moves, and what players a level above them play instead.
Learn them, don’t just read them. Play your move in each position before you see the answer.
Practise these 3On each board, the red arrow is the move most players at this level get wrong, and the green arrow is the move to play instead. Grouped by opening, the most costly first. From 121,810 games by players at this level, September 2026.
Petrov's Defence
Learn the Petrov's Defence1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 · Black to move
?!Most players here play
3...Nc6
17% of players rated 2000 and up do. It drops their winning chances by about 11%, and they score 50% from here.
Why: the engine’s best answer is 4.Nxc6 dxc6 5.d3 Bc5 6.Be2, and the position is worse for it.
★Play instead
3...d6
The sound move most chosen at this level: 62% play it.
From 249 games at this level that reached the position.
Two Knights Defence
Learn the Two Knights Defence1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Nc3 Nxe4 · White to move
?!Most players here play
5.Bxf7+
36% of players rated 2000 and up do. It drops their winning chances by about 14%, and they score 25% from here.
Why: it lets 5.Nxe4 go, and 5.Nxe4 wins a pawn.
★Play instead
5.Nxe4
The sound move most chosen at this level: 51% play it.
From 45 games at this level that reached the position.
Sicilian Defence
Learn the Sicilian Defence1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 g6 3.f4 Bg7 4.Nf3 · Black to move
?!Most players here play
4...e6
19% of players rated 2000 and up do. It drops their winning chances by about 11%, and they score 63% from here.
Why: White answers 5.e5 d5 6.d4 Nh6 7.dxc5, winning a pawn.
★Play instead
4...Nc6
The sound move most chosen at this level: 67% play it.
From 43 games at this level that reached the position.
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.