Philidor Defense
C41 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6 3. Bc4 Be7
White scores 58.2% here across 7,305 club games — but the 9.7% who answer Nc3 score 52.3%, 6 points worse.
What White actually plays here
Across 7,305 games from a Lichess-derived book of club play, White scores 58.2% in this position. These are the replies people choose, and how each one works out.
| Reply | Games | Share | White scores | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bc4 | 3,020 | 41.3% | 58.0% | holds up |
| d4 | 2,295 | 31.4% | 62.0% | holds up |
| Nc3 | 707 | 9.7% | 52.3% | below the line |
| h3 | 490 | 6.7% | 56.4% | holds up |
| c3 | 169 | 2.3% | 57.7% | holds up |
| Bb5+ | 158 | 2.2% | 50.9% | below the line |
| d3 | 157 | 2.1% | 56.4% | holds up |
| Be2 | 92 | 1.3% | 59.8% | holds up |
| b3 | 67 | 0.9% | 58.2% | holds up |
| c4 | 65 | 0.9% | 45.4% | below the line |
| g3 | 50 | 0.7% | 56.0% | 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.