Queen's Gambit Declined: Normal Defense
D35 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6
White scores 53.7% here across 1,502 club games — but the 2.3% who answer c5 score 47.1%, 7 points worse.
What White actually plays here
Across 1,502 games from a Lichess-derived book of club play, White scores 53.7% in this position. These are the replies people choose, and how each one works out.
| Reply | Games | Share | White scores | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bg5 | 571 | 38.0% | 53.9% | holds up |
| Nf3 | 504 | 33.6% | 55.6% | holds up |
| e3 | 146 | 9.7% | 54.5% | holds up |
| cxd5 | 122 | 8.1% | 53.3% | holds up |
| a3 | 50 | 3.3% | 53.0% | holds up |
| c5 | 34 | 2.3% | 47.1% | below the line |
| Bf4 | 31 | 2.1% | 54.8% | holds up |
| f3 | 28 | 1.9% | 28.6% | 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.