Queen's Pawn Game: Symmetrical Variation
D02 1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6
White scores 54.2% here across 1,427 club games — but the 7.8% who answer Nc3 score 42.8%, 11 points worse.
What White actually plays here
Across 1,427 games from a Lichess-derived book of club play, White scores 54.2% in this position. These are the replies people choose, and how each one works out.
| Reply | Games | Share | White scores | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| e3 | 520 | 36.4% | 58.3% | holds up |
| c4 | 263 | 18.4% | 54.9% | holds up |
| Bf4 | 251 | 17.6% | 57.0% | holds up |
| Nc3 | 111 | 7.8% | 42.8% | below the line |
| g3 | 105 | 7.4% | 47.1% | below the line |
| Bg5 | 72 | 5.0% | 46.5% | below the line |
| c3 | 45 | 3.2% | 43.3% | 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.