Opening Leak Lab

King's Pawn Game: Damiano Defense

C40 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 f6

White scores 60.2% here across 991 club games — but the 3.1% who answer d3 score 37.1%, 23 points worse.

What White actually plays here

Across 991 games from a Lichess-derived book of club play, White scores 60.2% in this position. These are the replies people choose, and how each one works out.

ReplyGamesShare White scoresVerdict
Bc4 358 36.1% 59.5% holds up
Nc3 206 20.8% 60.4% holds up
d4 198 20.0% 60.9% holds up
Nxe5 126 12.7% 67.5% holds up
d3 31 3.1% 37.1% below the line
c3 25 2.5% 52.0% 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.

Analyse my games

Related openings