Opening Leak Lab

French Defense: Queen's Knight

C00 1. e4 e6 2. Nc3

Black scores 50.1% here across 1,898 club games — but the 4.4% who answer b6 score 42.3%, 8 points worse.

What Black actually plays here

Across 1,898 games from a Lichess-derived book of club play, Black scores 50.1% in this position. These are the replies people choose, and how each one works out.

ReplyGamesShare Black scoresVerdict
d5 1,119 59.0% 50.3% holds up
c5 143 7.5% 51.4% holds up
c6 122 6.4% 55.3% holds up
b6 84 4.4% 42.3% below the line
d6 78 4.1% 48.7% holds up
Bb4 54 2.8% 62.0% holds up
Nf6 46 2.4% 44.6% below the line
Nc6 45 2.4% 44.4% below the line
a6 38 2.0% 47.4% holds up
g6 33 1.7% 48.5% holds up
Bc5 30 1.6% 63.3% holds up
Ne7 30 1.6% 50.0% 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.

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