Center Game
C20 1. e4 e5 2. d4
Black scores 45.3% here across 2,759 club games — but the 7.8% who answer Nc6 score 41.6%, 4 points worse.
What Black actually plays here
Across 2,759 games from a Lichess-derived book of club play, Black scores 45.3% in this position. These are the replies people choose, and how each one works out.
| Reply | Games | Share | Black scores | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| exd4 | 2,094 | 75.9% | 48.2% | holds up |
| Nc6 | 215 | 7.8% | 41.6% | below the line |
| d6 | 157 | 5.7% | 31.8% | below the line |
| d5 | 61 | 2.2% | 33.6% | below the line |
| f6 | 58 | 2.1% | 25.0% | below the line |
| Nf6 | 41 | 1.5% | 41.5% | below the line |
| Bd6 | 37 | 1.3% | 31.1% | below the line |
| Qh4 | 27 | 1.0% | 35.2% | below the line |
"Below the line" means the reply scores at least three points worse than the position does overall. Replies played fewer than 25 times are left out: the sample is too small to read.
Is this costing you anything?
A table of averages cannot tell you whether you go wrong here — only your own games can. Opening Leak Lab reads your Chess.com or Lichess archive, finds the decisions you repeat, and checks each one against this book and a bundled Stockfish.