French Defence by rating
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3
The French Defence is where engine evaluation and human practice part company hardest. After 3.Nc3 Stockfish's first choice is dxe4, and almost nobody plays it: at 1000 the likeliest human move is c5, which costs just under a pawn by the engine's count and remains the popular choice at 2200.
How often each rating finds the engine move
The lowest findability of any e4 opening in the run, under 20 percent at both ends of the rating range.
The position after 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3
This is where the opening actually starts asking a question. 34 moves are legal; Stockfish scores every one of them at depth 20.
Stockfish plays dxe4 at -0.41. Its next two choices are Nf6 (-0.48) and a6 (-0.53).
| Rating | Most likely human move | Finds dxe4 | Cost in pawns |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1000 | c5-1.37 | 18% | 0.96 |
| 1200 | c5-1.37 | 19% | 0.96 |
| 1400 | c5-1.37 | 21% | 0.96 |
| 1600 | c5-1.37 | 24% | 0.96 |
| 1800 | Nf6-0.48 | 24% | 0.07 |
| 2000 | Nf6-0.48 | 21% | 0.07 |
| 2200 | Nf6-0.48 | 16% | 0.07 |
Two plies deeper
Following the most popular human continuation at 1400: c5 (37%), then Nf3 (33%).
Stockfish plays cxd4 at -0.63. Its next two choices are Nf6 (-0.71) and Nc6 (-0.74).
| Rating | Most likely human move | Finds cxd4 | Cost in pawns |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1000 | Nc6-0.74 | 20% | 0.11 |
| 1200 | Nc6-0.74 | 19% | 0.11 |
| 1400 | Nc6-0.74 | 21% | 0.11 |
| 1600 | Nc6-0.74 | 26% | 0.11 |
| 1800 | Nc6-0.74 | 31% | 0.11 |
| 2000 | Nc6-0.74 | 33% | 0.11 |
| 2200 | Nc6-0.74 | 34% | 0.11 |
See this for your own games
Chessdrive runs the same two engines on your phone. It shows the move you should have found at your rating, not just the move a 3500-rated engine would have played.
How these numbers were produced
Stockfish 18 by the Stockfish developers (see AUTHORS file) at depth 20, with MultiPV set to the exact legal move count of each position so no move is left unscored, and Maia3, chessformer, human move prediction, 5m (bundled with maia3-js, UofTCSSLab/Maia3-5M, about 5M parameters) for the human move distribution. Run on 2026-08-29 over 28 positions across 7 rating bands. Findability is Maia3's probability for Stockfish's top move; it is not a claim about win rate.