Opening Leak Lab

Sicilian Defense: McDonnell Attack

B21 1. e4 c5 2. f4

Black scores 51.9% here across 983 club games — but the 14.2% who answer e6 score 48.6%, 3 points worse.

What Black actually plays here

Across 983 games from a Lichess-derived book of club play, Black scores 51.9% in this position. These are the replies people choose, and how each one works out.

ReplyGamesShare Black scoresVerdict
Nc6 467 47.5% 53.4% holds up
d6 204 20.8% 49.0% holds up
e6 140 14.2% 48.6% below the line
d5 81 8.2% 51.2% holds up
g6 27 2.7% 59.3% 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.

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