The Top 10 Chess Openings In 2026

Introduction

Dear chess friends,

You've probably wondered at some point - what openings should I play?

There are many ways to answer that question: personal feeling, statistics, what Grandmasters play the most, among others.

I explored over a thousand recent Grandmaster games in 2026 to determine the 10 most effective chess openings to play in 2026 - five for White, and five for Black!

I go deeper into these top ten openings in my recent YouTube video, which you can watch here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xIqYrJ4Buo

Now for the top 10 openings! If you would like more detailed coverage of these openings so that you can master them, check out my new course 'Winning Opening Tricks In 2026'.

Best White Opening #1 - The Nimzo-Larsen

When checking the statistics for games between players rated 2500+ FIDE in 2026, I was surprised to see that the Nimzo-Larsen (1.b3) was scoring a massive 70% for White! This is likely because of its combination of surprise value and the systematic nature of White's play in the opening and early middlegame.

I played 1.b3 quite a lot in 2019 online, around the time I retired from over-the-board tournaments. I had quite decent results with it, but the one line that bothered me the most was the reversed London approach with ...d5/...Bf5. However, in my YouTube video, I show a cool approach with an early d3 (rather than the standard e3 or the double fianchetto with g3) that sets practical problems for Black. I first learned of this setup last year from GM Felix Blohberger's content, and it's continuing to perform well in 2026.

Best Black Opening #1 - The Sveshnikov (via. a Four Knights Move Order)

It was cool to see my favourite childhood opening, the Sveshnikov Sicilian, doing extremely well in 2026 Grandmaster play. However, White was mostly avoiding the Sveshnikov with 3.Bb5 (the Rossolimo), and for this reason, a lot of GMs that want to play the Sveshnikov go for the Four Knights move order with 2...e6, to avoid the Rossolimo.

As I show in the video, Black is doing well in the old main line with 10.Nd5, and Black's position also proves quite robust (while still offering a lot of dynamic counterattacking potential) in the principled 6.Nxc6 lines. The Four Knights is well known to cause a lot of headaches below 2000 as well (as natural moves run into 6...Bb4 and 7...d5 with a fast central initiative), making it a great system to add to your Black repertoire in 2026.

Best White Opening #2 - The d3 Ruy Lopez

When checking the best-scoring systems in 1.e4 e5 (the main line in super-GM play), I noticed that White was doing very well in the Ruy Lopez with d3, partly because of the flexibility of White's position - White can choose between various setups with c3, a4 or a3, among others, while also avoiding very reliable systems for Black such as the Marshall Gambit and the Berlin endgame.

Even though engines are able to maintain the balance for Black, White's plans are easier to execute, and I also found some nice ideas in the 4.d3 Bc5 5.Bxc6 dxc6 6.Nbd2 variation for White, confirming my conclusion from my Yearbook Survey on the line 11 years ago (co-authored with GM David Smerdon) that White has the easier play, due to having the more flexible structure.

Best Black Opening #2 - The King's Indian

I was a bit surprised to see that the King's Indian has been enjoying a major revival at the top level, with a healthy plus score for Black, as the opening seemed to have lost most of its leading practitioners only a few years ago.

However, Black has found many fresh ideas of late, such as 7...h6!? in the Classical King's Indian (as I cover in the YouTube video), and White also struggled in the Fianchetto KID (generally considered very solid) in 2026 GM games. It also helps that modern engines have got better at evaluating the KID positions correctly, reviving many previously-rejected ideas.

Best White Opening #3 - The Catalan

If you have gone through statistics in the Opening Explorer on Lichess, you've probably noticed that the Catalan approach (with d4/c4/Nf3/g3) tends to score a fair bit better than average for White across the board. So I was not shocked to see the opening also performing above expectation in Grandmaster play in 2026.

As I mention in the YouTube video, to solve the King's Indian 'problem', one can also play the Catalan via. a 1.Nf3 or 1.c4 move order, avoiding d4 against the KID to get a more strategic middlegame. (It's even possible to play in the spirit of the Best White Opening #1, the Nimzo-Larsen, with a Double Fianchetto approach followed by c4/d3).

Best Black Opening #3 - The Winawer French

Black's great score with the Winawer French surprised me, as my old analysis had determined that White is slightly better in the arising positions. However, I went deeper into the positions and found that I had been too pessimistic about Black's chances, and that the Winawer is very much thriving in 2026!

The YouTube video shows how Nihal neutralized Wei Yi's use of what I'd previously considered the 'problem line' with h4/Rh3. And Fischer is well known to have struggled the most against the Winawer French as White, meaning that your opponents will also likely struggle to get their head around the strategic complexity. I go a lot deeper in my PGN file, which I'll share how you can access at the end of the post.

Best White Opening #4 - The Rubinstein Nimzo With 6.a3

While the Nimzo will always be a very reliable opening for Black, I have noticed over the last 5 or so years that the modern approach of 6.a3 (where GM Sarana is the leading expert for White) has basically overtaken the old 6.Nf3 (that I played as a junior) as the main line. There's also a lot of flexibility in how White can play the variation, making it easy to switch between variations and dodge Black's preparation.

The main reason White seems to be doing very well with this approach in recent GM games is that White has clear long-term advantages of the bishop pair and extra space. And while the engine is able to neutralize these advantages and hold equality, it only takes one small slip for those advantages to matter, while White can choose between many playable moves of similar strength in the middlegame.

Best Black Opening #4 - The Semi-Slav

After being a bit unfashionable in the last couple of years due to being so theoretically dense, the Semi-Slav (my favourite defence to 1.d4 during my peak OTB years) is back in business, scoring a nice plus score for Black in GM games in 2026. It's one of the few openings that combines solidity and flexibility with good dynamic, counterattacking potential.

In the YouTube video, I show why the Shabalov-Shirov Attack (the first opening I ever achieved a 2450+ performance rating with over a healthy sample size) is no longer effective today. Abdusattorov's win with Black over Keymer was integral in setting up his eventual win of the 2026 Tata Steel Masters. If you want to start playing the Semi-Slav yourself, I provide a Semi-Slav repertoire for Black in 'Winning Opening Tricks In 2026'.

Best White Opening #5 - The Jobava London

White's 80% score in the Jobava London in GM games in 2026 is frankly insane. It's partly thanks to the efforts of one of its leading practitioners, GM Bortnyk, but has also been played several times by other strong GMs in 2026, most notably Carlsen.

I've done pretty well with the opening over many years, and this success can also be attributed to the dynamic nature of the opening, and how easily White can generate attacking chances across the spectrum of Black's replies, as I show in my detailed PGN file.

Best Black Opening #5 - The Queen's Indian

Our final opening that's been scoring great Black in GM games in 2026 is the Queen's Indian. This one surprised me a little, as the Queen's Indian has always been known to be flexible and solid, but it was interesting to see a lot of strong GMs using it effectively as a weapon to play for a win.

A great example of that was the game I touch on in the YouTube video, Nguyen-Gukesh, where the World Champion played a creative approach with 4.g3 Ba6 5.b3 d5 to get a fresh position where he was able to outplay his opponent (exploiting his time pressure) and win the game. But there are a lot of different ways to play the Queen's Indian, as I show in my detailed PGN file, meaning most players can find something to their taste.

Conclusion

To conclude, the top 10 chess openings of 2026 (based on statistics from 1000+ GM games in 2026) are:

For White:
1. The Nimzo-Larsen
2. The Ruy Lopez With d3
3. The Catalan
4. The Rubinstein Nimzo With 6.a3
5. The Jobava London

For Black:
1. The Sveshnikov Sicilian (via. the 2...e6 Four Knights)
2. The King's Indian
3. The Winawer French
4. The Semi-Slav
5. The Queen's Indian

As you can see, there are a range of openings scoring well in 2026, and you can pick the ones that feel the most natural and appealing to you, using my YouTube video as a starting point from which to build on with your own experiences.

Or, we can greatly shorten the learning curve toward mastering these openings for you, with my new course, 'Winning Opening Tricks In 2026'.

In this course, I have included as a bonus a detailed PGN file sharing with you the most important GM games in each of these top 10 openings, with my annotations of the most promising directions for both sides in the key variations.

This course reflects my overall approach to openings in the modern era: creative, practical, settting problems for the opponent, and being efficient, getting the results we want with a lot less time than memorizing a ton of computer variations or trying to know every single little detail (most of which won't come up over the board).

The launch concludes in the next few weeks, so get in now before the additional bonuses disappear!