English Opening: The Whale
C20 1. e4 e5 2. c4
Black scores 48.7% here across 722 club games — but the 20.1% who answer Nc6 score 44.5%, 4 points worse.
What Black actually plays here
Across 722 games from a Lichess-derived book of club play, Black scores 48.7% in this position. These are the replies people choose, and how each one works out.
| Reply | Games | Share | Black scores | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nf6 | 240 | 33.2% | 51.5% | holds up |
| Nc6 | 145 | 20.1% | 44.5% | below the line |
| Bc5 | 132 | 18.3% | 54.9% | holds up |
| d6 | 81 | 11.2% | 46.3% | holds up |
| c5 | 55 | 7.6% | 40.9% | below the line |
| c6 | 32 | 4.4% | 43.8% | 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.