French Defense: Knight Variation
C00 1. e4 e6 2. Nf3
Black scores 50.3% here across 2,823 club games — but the 5.7% who answer d6 score 47.2%, 3 points worse.
What Black actually plays here
Across 2,823 games from a Lichess-derived book of club play, Black scores 50.3% in this position. These are the replies people choose, and how each one works out.
| Reply | Games | Share | Black scores | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| d5 | 1,605 | 56.9% | 54.4% | holds up |
| c5 | 281 | 10.0% | 50.9% | holds up |
| d6 | 160 | 5.7% | 47.2% | below the line |
| b6 | 159 | 5.6% | 41.5% | below the line |
| Nf6 | 118 | 4.2% | 39.0% | below the line |
| c6 | 101 | 3.6% | 48.0% | holds up |
| Nc6 | 91 | 3.2% | 42.3% | below the line |
| Ne7 | 76 | 2.7% | 49.3% | holds up |
| a6 | 45 | 1.6% | 54.4% | holds up |
| g6 | 38 | 1.3% | 34.2% | below the line |
| Be7 | 38 | 1.3% | 30.3% | 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.