King's Gambit Declined: Queen's Knight Defense
C30 1. e4 e5 2. f4 Nc6
White scores 52.3% here across 1,813 club games — but the 3.9% who answer fxe5 score 46.5%, 6 points worse.
What White actually plays here
Across 1,813 games from a Lichess-derived book of club play, White scores 52.3% in this position. These are the replies people choose, and how each one works out.
| Reply | Games | Share | White scores | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nf3 | 1,560 | 86.0% | 53.1% | holds up |
| Bc4 | 78 | 4.3% | 52.6% | holds up |
| fxe5 | 71 | 3.9% | 46.5% | below the line |
| d3 | 33 | 1.8% | 48.5% | below the line |
| f5 | 29 | 1.6% | 51.7% | 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.
Related openings
- King's Gambit C30