Thanks Punkie! You just surfing around troll-spotting? Nothing else to contribute? It's so good to have you providing such a crucial service to us.
TMB
It's Sicilians and Ruys...everything else is second tier
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What? 1. d4 is getting played all the time at the top level, perhaps even a little more often tham 1. e4. Ever since the 2000 WC match the reputation of 1. e4 has been a little dented by the success of the Berlin Wall.
Of course after 1. e4 the vast majority of Super GM games end up as either a Sicilian or a Ruy.
They're no good in Cylindrical Chess though.
wasted_youth wrote:
They're no good in Cylindrical Chess though.
Actually as far as I can tell the mainline of the closed Ruy seems to work. 
It might even be a little better than usual for white since after h3 is played the queen's knight can jump to h2-f1-g3, getting to g3 in 1 less move than usual.
>What? 1. d4 is getting played all the time at the top level, perhaps even a little more often tham 1. e4. <
Name one World Champion who has played it in WC matches recently. With dates :)
Games 1 and 5 of the Carlsen-Anand match transposed into d4 lines. Game 9 started with d4.
9 of the 12 games in the Anand - Gelfand match started with 1. d4.
10 of the 11 games of the 2008 match between Anand and Kramnik started with d4 or transposed into d4 lines.
Shall I go on?
maskedbishop wrote:
>What? 1. d4 is getting played all the time at the top level, perhaps even a little more often tham 1. e4. <
Name one World Champion who has played it in WC matches recently. With dates :)
Games 12,10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 Anand-Topalov 2010
Ubik42 wrote:
maskedbishop wrote:
>What? 1. d4 is getting played all the time at the top level, perhaps even a little more often tham 1. e4. <
Name one World Champion who has played it in WC matches recently. With dates :)
Games 12,10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 Anand-Topalov 2010
And the other one was an English so 1. e4 did not feature in the entire match!
So what has happened to the popularity of 1.e4 at the top? Does anyone still play that museum opening?
When you play through a e4 game you feel like you have to walk quietly, examine all the centuries old stuff trying not to judge it by modern standards, and then tip the staff on the way out, thanking them for showing you how things used to be.
maskedbishop wrote:
>What? 1. d4 is getting played all the time at the top level, perhaps even a little more often tham 1. e4. <
Name one World Champion who has played it in WC matches recently. With dates :)
Anand-Carlsen, WCC round 9, Thu Nov 21 2013.
Ubik42 wrote:
So what has happened to the popularity of 1.e4 at the top? Does anyone still play that museum opening?
When you play through a e4 game you feel like you have to walk quietly, examine all the centuries old stuff trying not to judge it by modern standards, and then tip the staff on the way out, thanking them for showing you how things used to be.
Yeah and everytime they do play 1. e4 in WCs its the damn Berlin!
Bring on a poisoned pawn Najdorf in the next WC match!
wasted_youth wrote:
maskedbishop wrote:
>What? 1. d4 is getting played all the time at the top level, perhaps even a little more often tham 1. e4. <
Name one World Champion who has played it in WC matches recently. With dates :)
Anand-Carlsen, WCC round 9, Thu Nov 21 2013.
Ah that doesnt count, by round 9 Anand wasnt the champ anymore.
I think if you check you will find that 1. e4 has not featured heavily in WC matches since 2000 due to black's strong drawing chances in some lines (especially the Berlin). The recent Anand - Carlsen match was probably as much as 1. e4 has been seen in a WC match post-2000.
>Shall I go on?<
Well, you did find six games in about fifteen years of chess...
Anand played both 1.e4 and 1.d4 exactly 52 times against players rated 2700+ in 2013. With 1.e4 he won 18 games; with 1.d4 19 games.
Carlsen played both openings 43 times in 2013 against 2700+ players, and won 18 with each opening.
Your theory sounds a bit leaky.
Kasparov played 1.e4 and 1.d4 regularly. For certain matches he unveiled 1.c4, and 1.Nf3. In one famous match we stuck to 1.d3 (less successfully)
Magnus often plays 1.c4
Ok, that's good data.
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At least, that seems to be the consensus at the very top for the past decade or so, every since Fischer brought back e4 to World Championship play.
Karpov tried to get around this with the Caro-Kann...and he's the Last of the Mohicans on that one. Might just as well have been the First of them too.
We won't see a another d4 World Champion again, not for a LONG time.