English Opening: King's English Variation, Reversed Sicilian
A21 1. c4 e5 2. Nc3
Black scores 44.3% here across 851 club games — but the 10.6% who answer d6 score 37.2%, 7 points worse.
What Black actually plays here
Across 851 games from a Lichess-derived book of club play, Black scores 44.3% in this position. These are the replies people choose, and how each one works out.
| Reply | Games | Share | Black scores | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nf6 | 325 | 38.2% | 46.3% | holds up |
| Nc6 | 127 | 14.9% | 46.1% | holds up |
| Bc5 | 93 | 10.9% | 45.2% | holds up |
| d6 | 90 | 10.6% | 37.2% | below the line |
| Bb4 | 78 | 9.2% | 41.0% | below the line |
| c6 | 48 | 5.6% | 53.1% | holds up |
| f5 | 35 | 4.1% | 34.3% | below the line |
| c5 | 26 | 3.1% | 57.7% | holds up |
"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.