Opening Leak Lab

French Defense: La Bourdonnais Variation

C00 1. e4 e6 2. f4

Black scores 50.8% here across 530 club games — but the 8.5% who answer d6 score 45.6%, 5 points worse.

What Black actually plays here

Across 530 games from a Lichess-derived book of club play, Black scores 50.8% in this position. These are the replies people choose, and how each one works out.

ReplyGamesShare Black scoresVerdict
d5 288 54.3% 57.5% holds up
d6 45 8.5% 45.6% below the line
c5 45 8.5% 54.4% holds up
b6 32 6.0% 20.3% 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.

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