Mikenas Defense
A40 1. d4 Nc6
White scores 53.9% here across 1,253 club games — but the 11.7% who answer e3 score 49.3%, 5 points worse.
What White actually plays here
Across 1,253 games from a Lichess-derived book of club play, White scores 53.9% in this position. These are the replies people choose, and how each one works out.
| Reply | Games | Share | White scores | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nf3 | 322 | 25.7% | 53.3% | holds up |
| d5 | 191 | 15.2% | 57.1% | holds up |
| c4 | 186 | 14.8% | 54.3% | holds up |
| Bf4 | 185 | 14.8% | 57.8% | holds up |
| e3 | 146 | 11.7% | 49.3% | below the line |
| e4 | 70 | 5.6% | 47.1% | below the line |
| Nc3 | 64 | 5.1% | 67.2% | holds up |
| c3 | 55 | 4.4% | 46.4% | below the line |
"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.