Opening Leak Lab

French Defense: Steiner Variation

C00 1. e4 e6 2. c4

Black scores 47.9% here across 509 club games — but the 53.6% who answer d5 score 43.6%, 4 points worse.

What Black actually plays here

Across 509 games from a Lichess-derived book of club play, Black scores 47.9% in this position. These are the replies people choose, and how each one works out.

ReplyGamesShare Black scoresVerdict
d5 273 53.6% 43.6% below the line
c5 68 13.4% 54.4% holds up
c6 49 9.6% 59.2% holds up
b6 31 6.1% 54.8% holds up
d6 26 5.1% 48.1% 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.

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