Does anyone know any rare openings with high win%?

Anyone know of some somewhat uncommon/rare openings that have unusually high win percentages? I found the rat defense (1.d4 d6 2. c4 e5) which has a 43% win rate for black and 27% for white, at the master level anyone know other openings like this?

I don't know any openings that would qualify (Alekhine's Defense might qualify but I'm not sure about the win rate although it is at least around 50%, maybe higher) but I think you should rather look at the lichess player database instead of the master database. Aronian or Carlsen will do better against something than your opponents.

Smith morra?

Smith-Morra is a tricky opening and can be quite dangerous. In the master's database, however, it's scoring better for black.

This English Rat line scores remarkably well, even in the master's database. Especially in this endgame line, black scores 49% win and 42% draw out of 447 games which is crazy.

Black is apparently much better here and is winning most of the games.

Okay, but Black cannot force this Line. What does he play against 2. e4 ? I think Pirc has not so good results for Black.

Sure, if white plays e4 it's now the Pirc and there's nothing you can do about it. It's just interesting that with fairly natural looking moves by white, a practically winning endgame for black is reached.

I use the Urusov Gambit. Haven't seen any stats about the opening, but I've won many games just knowing the theory and traps. GJ chess has a couple great videos explaining it. Hope this helped!

I've found this Accelerated Mannheim variation of the Queen's Gambit Accepted has unusually high win percentages.

I think the Urusov is a pretty good Gambit. The winrates are respectable. If black plays well maybe they have a slight edge but it's not simple at all. There's definitely compensation for the pawn.

White has very beautiful development here. All pieces developed, castled queenside, rooks on the open files, tactical threats.

Interesting, thank you SamuelAjedrez95 I've never even heard of the Mannheim gambit but it seems like a cool line.

It's an interesting QGA sideline. I think not a lot of people know about it as there is not so much focus on QGA and generally people are happy with the standard QGA lines.

I think the Mannheim is not the best. White brings out the queen early which can be considered a wasted tempo. It's tricky though and the positions are quite unique so white appears to be doing better than you'd expect.

• Blocking the check with the bishop is not ideal as the black LSB doesn't belong on d7.
• Often by recapturing on c4 with the queen, white preserves the option of fianchettoing the LSB with g3-Bg2.
• It also restrains b5 from being played. With the knight on c3 or bishop on c4, after a6-b5 it could be captured, as the a pawn is pinned to the rook.

No, because if they had a high win percentage, they wouldn't be rare!

against 1.d4 I usually play the englund gambit and even though that's more common it's riddled with traps that work really well

halloween gambit is pretty good for that. so is the ponziani my personal favorite

Englund Gambit and Halloween Gambit are actual trash.

I don't recommend you play this opening but it still is funny: the toilet variation, which was created in a bathroom by a Sicilian Grand Prix player.

Eh, that's not really true at all. There are many unpopular openings that score very well for the side playing them.

Yeah, because they are played at the chump level only and chumps don't know how to defend.

In a battle between a pair of 1600 players, the game could start 1.e4 e5 or 1.a4 h5 and it would make no difference!

I mean as I mentioned in the post, the rat defense is an opening for black which at master level has a 43% win rate for black and only 27% for white. The players at the master level are certainly not chumps, so....

The reason the Rat Defence isn't popular is because it's boring, but it's not bad.