Three Knights Opening: Steinitz Defense

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 g6

The Three Knights Opening: Steinitz Defense is a chess opening classified as ECO C46, reached after 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 g6. It is a line of the Three Knights Opening. White is to move. 1 named line continues from this position.

In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 965 times by this move order. White won 50%, 6% were drawn and Black won 44%. The most popular continuation is 4. Bc4 (36% of games).

Engine evaluation: +0.75 (Stockfish, depth 44; best line 4. d4 exd4 5. Nxd4 Bg7 6. Be3 d6)

ECO: C46
Moves: 6 plies
FEN: r1bqkbnr/pppp1p1p/2n3p1/4p3/4P3/2N2N2/PPPP1PPP/R1BQKB1R w KQkq - 0 4
PGN: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 g6

Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess

Results by rating

Average rating	Games	White / draw / Black
0-1499	614	54%41%
1500-1999	252	44%51%
2000+	99	44%48%
All	965	50%44%

Most played moves

Move	Games	White / draw / Black
4. Bc4	343 (36%)	52%44%
4. d4	269 (28%)	51%43%
4. Bb5	179 (19%)	47%50%
4. d3	85 (9%)	58%33%
4. a3	14 (1%)	50%43%
4. Be2	13 (1%)	23%15%62%
4. h3	10 (1%)	30%70%
4. b3	9 (1%)	44%56%

Master games

479 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 36%, draw 17%, Black 47%). The strongest:

GM Magnus Carlsen (2839) – GM Hikaru Nakamura (2780) 1/2-1/2 · chess.com SpeedChess 2023 · 2023-09-22
GM Mikhail Kobalia (2651) – GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (2753) 1-0 · FIDE World Blitz 2013 · 2013-06-09
GM Evgeniy Najer (2633) – GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (2753) 1-0 · FIDE World Blitz 2013 · 2013-06-09
GM Jeffery Xiong (2693) – GM Nihal Sarin (2688) 1-0 · Titled Tue 25th Jul Late · 2023-07-25
GM Francisco Vallejo Pons (2716) – GM Nodirbek Yakubboev (2647) 1-0 · World Blitz 2022 · 2022-12-29

Search all games of the Three Knights Opening: Steinitz Defense and its sub-variations

Highest-rated Lichess games

Kruciatos (2767) – IM shuriks91 (2797) 0-1 · 2026-09-04 · 180 + 0s
Juplt3rLlk3 (2738) – IM shuriks91 (2817) 0-1 · 2026-09-05 · 180 + 0s
Juplt3rLlk3 (2727) – IM shuriks91 (2826) 0-1 · 2026-09-05 · 180 + 0s

Comes from

Three Knights Opening (2… Nc6 3. Nc3) 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3

Continuations

Three Knights Opening: Steinitz-Rosenthal Variation C46 · 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 g6 4. d4 exd4 5. Nd5

More Three Knights Opening lines (all)

Opening names and moves from the Lichess openings dataset; statistics from the Lichess open database, 2026-09 (CC0), sample of 12.6 million games, bots excluded; evaluations from Lichess cloud analysis (all CC0). Master games from The Week in Chess #920–#1664 by Mark Crowther, used with permission.