Philidor Defense
Moves
Black scores
47.7%
Loses moreEveryone
Loses moreEvenWins more
45.6% won4.1% drawn50.2% lost
Theory 44.7% · Stockfish +0.6
Every level and clock · 69M games
1
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4
5
6
7
h8
g
f
e
d
c
b
a
2...d6
Your levelnot setDrag to yours ↔
<100010001200140016001800200022002500+
Win rate by rating
Black’s score holds about the same all the way up.
| Rating | Score against even | Score | Won | Games |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 48.2% | 46.1% | 4.6M | ||
| 47.5% | 45.6% | 8.2M | ||
| 47.8% | 45.9% | 13M | ||
| 48.0% | 46.0% | 16M | ||
| 47.7% | 45.5% | 14M | ||
| 47.4% | 45.1% | 8.8M | ||
| 47.2% | 44.8% | 3.3M | ||
| 47.4% | 44.7% | 1.1M | ||
| 46.5% | 42.9% | 198K |
Every clock · Tap a row to set your level.
What does White play next?
White's most played reply is 3.Bc4 Be7 4.c3, the Steinitz Variation.
Is the Philidor Defense good?
Not for Black, across every level and clock.
Everyone47.7
Stockfish44.7
Stockfish at depth 22 · +0.6 for White
Floor 47.7 is the worst score you would still get, 90% confident.
Among the families
40th of 65 families Black can choose
Where it wins · rating × clock
Best 55.2% · under 1000 ultrabulletWorst 37.6% · 2500+ rapid
Faint, hatched: few games, never the best or worst. Tap a cell to set your level and clock.
Average game length
0204060This line 34All openings 34
More about this line
How do you score in your own openings?
Leaks reads your recent games and lists the openings you score worst in.
More Philidor Defense lines
Most played first; each line counts its own games.
All 37 Philidor Defense lines, ranked
37 variations · ranked by floor
Floor — the worst score you would still get, 90% confident.
1
Philidor Defense: Lion Variation, Sozin Variation625 games
2
Philidor Defense: Lion Variation, Bishop Sacrifice24K games
3
Philidor Defense: Albin-Blackburne Gambit53K games
Philidor Defense: Philidor Countergambit, Berger Variation199 games
Philidor Defense: Lion Variation1.2M games
Philidor Defense: Hanham Variation, Steiner Variation15K games
Philidor Defense: Lion Variation, Lion's Claw, with Be2 and c615K games
Philidor Defense: Hanham Variation1.1M games
Philidor Defense: Hanham Variation, Krause Variation29K games
Philidor Defense: Hanham Variation, Schlechter Variation81K games
Philidor Defense: Lion Variation, Lion's Claw, with Bc4 and h637K games
Philidor Defense: Philidor Countergambit, del Rio Attack14K games
Philidor Defense: Steinitz Variation640K games
Philidor Defense: Philidor Countergambit409K games
Philidor Defense: Boden Variation50K games
Philidor Defense: Lopez Countergambit804K games
Philidor Defense: Hanham Variation, Delmar Variation28K games
Philidor Defense52M games
Philidor Defense: Nimzowitsch, Larobok Variation311 games
Philidor Defense: Exchange Variation9.1M games
Philidor Defense: Larsen Variation240K games
Philidor Defense: Morphy Gambit877K games
Philidor Defense: Hanham, Kmoch Variation12K games
Philidor Defense: Nimzowitsch Variation, Sokolsky Variation2.8K games
Philidor Defense: Nimzowitsch, Locock Variation16K games
Philidor Defense: Berger Variation257 games
Philidor Defense: Nimzowitsch Variation, Klein Variation408K games
Philidor Defense: Philidor Gambit61K games
Philidor Defense: Bird Gambit471K games
Philidor Defense: Nimzowitsch Variation, Rellstab Variation18K games
Philidor Defense: Nimzowitsch Variation1.1M games
Philidor Defense: Hanham Variation, Sharp Variation4.6K games
Philidor Defense: Philidor Countergambit, Zukertort Variation185K games
Philidor Defense: Lion Variation, Shirov Gambit23K games
Philidor Defense: Lion Variation, Forcing Line6.0K games
Philidor Defense: Lion Variation, Delayed Bishop Sacrifice9.9K games
Philidor Defense: Paulsen Attack22K games
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Analyze Philidor Defense PositionsSee what each move is worth at your rating, move by move
Methodology
Across every level and clock, the Philidor Defense family scores 47.7% for Black, from 69M rated Lichess games across 37 variations, and the low and high ends of its range both round to that same figure at this precision. Win rate, draw rate and loss rate come from games played September 2023 to August 2026.
How the figures are made
- Whose games these are
- 69M rated games played on Lichess (2023-09 to 2026-08). The games are Lichess’s and free for anyone to use. What is ours is the reading of them. Last rebuilt September 2026.
- Which games we count
- Rated games only — nothing casual.
- Both players within 200 rating points of each other. A mismatch tells you about the gap, not about the opening.
- At least 2 moves played.
- A game is filed under White’s rating.
- Why every number comes with a range
- A number off a few hundred games is a guess. The same number off millions is a fact. The range is what tells them apart, and it is what the lists rank on — so an opening cannot reach the top on a lucky run of forty games. The more games behind a figure, the narrower its range.
- What the Floor and Edge at worst are
- The Floor is the worst score you would still get, 90% confident: the low end of a figure’s range, not its average. Edge at worst is how far wins run ahead of losses, 90% confident, so above zero, that side wins more than it loses even on a bad day. Each is stated for the rating and clock shown, over the games that reached the position. They are on different scales: a score sits at 50 when the sides are level, an edge at zero.
- How much we need before we say anything
- An opening page needs 100 games. A figure on it needs 100 games at its rating and clock: short of that the answer reads a wider scope and says so, a table row shows only its count, and a map cell shows a dash. Under 1.0K games a figure is drawn faint, and never leads a list or counts as the best or worst place the line wins. The chaos and trap lists need 500 games overall and 250 games at one rating or clock.