stonewall, and french possibilities, i think its overlooked, because some people think its passive, perhaps its a just a move order adjuster?

I might pop out a 1. e3 today just because of this forum ;-)

This move, like Nf3 or c4, is another solid move for white, with the main drawback being that it doesn't put as much pressure on black as e4 and d4. With white I prefer to put a little pressure on black's position, to have some control over the game, because I feel an opening advantage makes me worry about black's counterplay less and gives me more wiggle room.

In your stonewall position you posted, white has no problems, but black at least has his fair share of counterplay, something that is not always easy for him to get.

So young, and playing e3.

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More spinach in his diet might help him push that pawn, one square farther.

PrawnEatsPrawn wrote: DrSpudnik wrote: So young, and playing e3. I do play e4, but i think its overlooked, that's why i posted it here More spinach in his diet might help him push that pawn, one square farther.

I have seen it played by a really good player on yahoo, as an alternative to trying to use the king's gambit, because you still end up in the same sort of position, but without most of the potential harassment...

I had actually forgotten about it. I am glad you showed me.

What's the point when a beginner/weak (Firepower: I don't say you are a beginner) play such opening?

All weaker players (<1800 OTB) are bad at tactics. The best way of learning tactics is to play open games. The game is not won/lost in the opening, assuming you don't do a blunder and assuming you are not at GM.

Stop wasting your time on opening study!

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I generally don't, but I have begun to discover probably my two biggest weaknesses. One is needing to retrain my brain to use ideas that I generally trained myself never to do, to begin to have good tactics and the other, is I tend to have most of my problems in the opening and early middle game (epsecially the early middle game). I have more problems trying to visualize and calculate when there are maybe 8 different good moves that could be made and if made at the right time, they all 8 could get used and be a pivotal part of a superbly played game. I am not sure how to solve this problem. One would be to obviously play alot and just try to get used to seeing the positions, so I hopefully learn and remember the do's and don'ts. Any other advice?

To nameno-just keep playing! The more one plays, the more one sees. We will all make mistakes.

To the OP, I have played many "unconventional" games. This opening is interesting, but, one can never assume the opponent's move.

O.K. let me give you a real opinion. By real, I mean somebody who used to play this opening in tournaments etc. Now, firstly the real line of this opening for white starts with 1.D4,  this normally results in a d5 reply and black does sometimes mirror 2.e3 with 2.e6. There are a few main ideas in this opening which are...

1. The bishop's position at d3 is paramount to it's effectiveness.

2. Your main aim is to move the knight unchallenged by pawns into the square e5.

3. Your attack focuses on the king's side, you can use your rook by moving it from f1,f3,h3/g3. The queen comes into use too. Also advancing pawns to g4 helps. In addition, moving the black bishop to d2, e1, h4 adds some excitement.

4. The Knight on D2 is paramount to stopping black moving his knight to e4.

5. F4 needs to be played pretty quickly to prevent e5.

If your opponent allows all this to happen, then they will be slaughtered. The best thing from your pointof view is that they attempt to push pawns on the queen side, never successful.

However, there are easy enough ways to counter it's effectiveness and in best play make it a weakness on white. For example, fianchettoing the bishop on b7 brings problems, as would doing the same on g7. More importantly, not allowing the bishop to get to d3, badly inhibits white. of course white's black bishop is blocked by his pawns and it takes a while to move it from d2,e1,h4. Playing e5 effectively ends the opening, although depending upon when it is played can lead to a better position for black.

I completely disagree with comments made by msiipola, this opening is FANTASTIC for an average player. However, you must stop playing it if you want to progress. However, for playing most players on chess.com, a brilliant opening and one you should read up on for sure.

It's a solid position, but White isn't using that extra tempo to pressure Black in any way whatsoever. And he has pushed his f-pawn, which is dangerous because f2 is the weakest White square.

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The couple of times you mentioned "if your opponent lets this happen". I started realizing that when playing that system, whether through King's Gambit or whatever you call it if you morph into it by opening e3, if your opponent knows how to either stop it from happening first ( ala many of my bad King's Gambit attempts) or if you lose the initative, the crowded area in the middle makes maneuvering difficult to mount an attack or sustain a counter attack, I have noticed that you are particularly vulnerable just outside of the center of your defense too, if black knows how to exploit it.

I actually do agree with msiipola to an extent: Opening theory hasn't proven important when I was under 1800 because I would give my advantages away constantly due to simple moves. However, I think part of the purpose of 1 e3 is to cut down on theory to learn, so it's not necessarily a bad choice. I don't think you need to play a specific opening to learn certain parts of the game: no matter what opening you play, the game will always be open sometimes; there will always be times when tactics explode; there will sometimes be positions where you need to grind out an endgame. Indeed, (and especially at amateur level) you can play a super quiet opening and have it turn into an insanely sharp game.

I also want to say that the stonewall is a slower build-up than one might imagine, which means for it to work in its purest form your opponent has to be planless.

Imagine if black were castled. Even if white could now have Nbd2, Qe1, Ne5, h3, and g4 for free, he still wouldn't have a direct threat. Black can do stuff in that time; personally, I would expand on the queenside, but also keep an eye on the center, not necessarily to play there directly, but it's telling white if you get too crazy I might blow the game open (...f6 and ...e5 is the common way; but black can also try to get his own knight on e4, usually leading to an exchange there where black would get a decent pawn on e4) and those pawns you pushed might open your king.

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Sometimes I like to play black, just to feel more free to move where my calculations and intuition tells me, instead of a book. I usually feel more like I have to stick to book moves when I open with white. Maybe some of that is my calculation and intuition is just feeling stuck agreeing with what the books say. Maybe my ability with black isn't as far along, but against weaker players,it can be more interesting and fun than to start at the same old static positions.

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If it were only that easy everytime...

nameno1had, your thesis is very valid. Most of the game is not decided in the opening.

People really overreact here....

it turns out im randomly switching back and forth between e4 and e3 now, its really nice how this flexibility works :)