Scandinavian by rating
1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3
The Scandinavian is popular below 1500 precisely because it looks like it skips theory, and this is the position that shows the bill. After 3.Nc3 the queen has to go somewhere; the engine says a5, and at 1000 the likeliest human move is the check on e6, which the engine scores about half a pawn worse.
How often each rating finds the engine move
18 percent at 1000 against 53 percent at 2200, one of the sharpest learning curves in the dataset.
The position after 1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3
This is where the opening actually starts asking a question. 47 moves are legal; Stockfish scores every one of them at depth 20.
Stockfish plays Qa5 at -0.63. Its next two choices are Qd6 (-0.75) and Qd8 (-0.78).
| Rating | Most likely human move | Finds Qa5 | Cost in pawns |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1000 | Qe6+-1.09 | 18% | 0.46 |
| 1200 | Qd8-0.78 | 24% | 0.15 |
| 1400 | Qd8-0.78 | 29% | 0.15 |
| 1600 | Qd8-0.78 | 33% | 0.15 |
| 1800 | Qa5-0.63 | 39% | same move |
| 2000 | Qa5-0.63 | 48% | same move |
| 2200 | Qa5-0.63 | 53% | same move |
Two plies deeper
Following the most popular human continuation at 1400: Qd8 (35%), then Nf3 (45%).
Stockfish plays Nf6 at -0.72. Its next two choices are e6 (-0.73) and Bf5 (-0.76).
| Rating | Most likely human move | Finds Nf6 | Cost in pawns |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1000 | Nf6-0.72 | 25% | same move |
| 1200 | Nf6-0.72 | 27% | same move |
| 1400 | Nf6-0.72 | 29% | same move |
| 1600 | Nf6-0.72 | 34% | same move |
| 1800 | Nf6-0.72 | 40% | same move |
| 2000 | Nf6-0.72 | 48% | same move |
| 2200 | Nf6-0.72 | 59% | same move |
See this for your own games
Chessdrive runs the same two engines on your phone. It shows the move you should have found at your rating, not just the move a 3500-rated engine would have played.
How these numbers were produced
Stockfish 18 by the Stockfish developers (see AUTHORS file) at depth 20, with MultiPV set to the exact legal move count of each position so no move is left unscored, and Maia3, chessformer, human move prediction, 5m (bundled with maia3-js, UofTCSSLab/Maia3-5M, about 5M parameters) for the human move distribution. Run on 2026-08-29 over 28 positions across 7 rating bands. Findability is Maia3's probability for Stockfish's top move; it is not a claim about win rate.