Queen's Gambit Declined: Three Knights Variation
D37 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Nf3 Be7 5. e3 O-O
Black scores 44.9% here across 839 club games — but the 10.7% who answer c5 score 41.7%, 3 points worse.
What Black actually plays here
Across 839 games from a Lichess-derived book of club play, Black scores 44.9% in this position. These are the replies people choose, and how each one works out.
| Reply | Games | Share | Black scores | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Be7 | 216 | 25.7% | 48.6% | holds up |
| Bb4 | 193 | 23.0% | 42.0% | holds up |
| c6 | 136 | 16.2% | 51.5% | holds up |
| c5 | 90 | 10.7% | 41.7% | below the line |
| Nbd7 | 59 | 7.0% | 50.8% | holds up |
| b6 | 49 | 5.8% | 41.8% | below the line |
| a6 | 30 | 3.6% | 43.3% | 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.