Hello. Recently I have been adding the Alekhine defense to my repertoire as a second line option versus 1.e4 with some good sucesses.

Interestingly, the variation I am encountering most often of late is the Steiner variation (1.e4 Nf6 2.e5 Nd5 3.c4 Nb6 4.b3).  Typically I have continued: 4...d6 5.exd6 exd6 6.Bb2 Nc6 7.d4.

I have a couple of questions. First, what thoughts do you have on the Steiner variation and Black's replies to it? Do other replies instead of 4...d6 offer better opportunities for black?

One of my most recent games followed a different line in this variation. To be honest, I'm not certain if my opponent intended to play the moves in this order or whether it was accidental. Either way it caused me to pause. The game went 4...d6 5.Bb2 and then continued 5...dxe5 6.Bxe5 Nc6 7.Bb2 e5 8.Nf3 Bg4 9.Be2 e5 10.Ne5 Nxe5 11.Bxe5 Bf5. It was only as a consequence of a blunder by my opponent later on that I prevailed in the game.

I felt like I had the opportunity to seize a slight advantage early on, but that my play failed to realize that potential. My database has no games in it that continued 5.Bb2 and online I was able to only find one unsatisfying correspondence game that contained similarities. Does anyone have any thoughts on replying to 5.Bb2? I thought perhaps of 8...Nd7 or maybe 8...Bd6 but am not certain whether either of those really affords any better opporunties. I appreciate any thoughts that you might have, thank you.