Best Chess Opening for Black

Playing black means answering a question you did not ask. The first move is already made, and you are deciding what kind of game the two of you are going to have.

That decision splits along a line of temperament. You can fight for the initiative immediately — the Sicilian, and the sprawling family of Najdorf, Dragon and Sveshnikov underneath it — and accept a sharper, more heavily memorised game where one inaccuracy on move fifteen ends the discussion. Or you can build something solid, absorb the pressure, and play for the endgame. The Caro-Kann and the French are that argument, and they are quieter without ever being passive.

The field here is thirty-seven defences, each shown at the position that defines it rather than at the first move. The bracket is asking which one you would trust with a game that actually mattered, not which one scores best across a database of millions.

The diagrams were generated from the real move sequences, so what you are looking at is the genuine board after the line has been played out.