French Defense
C00 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5
White scores 49.7% here across 9,709 club games — but the 4.2% who answer e5 score 38.7%, 11 points worse.
What White actually plays here
Across 9,709 games from a Lichess-derived book of club play, White scores 49.7% in this position. These are the replies people choose, and how each one works out.
| Reply | Games | Share | White scores | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| d4 | 4,548 | 46.8% | 51.8% | holds up |
| Nf3 | 2,769 | 28.5% | 49.9% | holds up |
| f4 | 494 | 5.1% | 48.7% | holds up |
| Bc4 | 440 | 4.5% | 47.4% | holds up |
| e5 | 410 | 4.2% | 38.7% | below the line |
| Nc3 | 296 | 3.0% | 50.2% | holds up |
| d3 | 231 | 2.4% | 36.8% | below the line |
| c4 | 169 | 1.7% | 53.8% | holds up |
| b3 | 81 | 0.8% | 49.4% | holds up |
| Qf3 | 61 | 0.6% | 51.6% | holds up |
| a3 | 34 | 0.4% | 35.3% | below the line |
| g3 | 33 | 0.3% | 37.9% | 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.