Winning and losing positions, or just losing positions after 13 moves?
1. e4 vs 1. d4
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[Fischer] also gives his opinions on openings, mentioning that he "never opened with the queen's pawn - on principle" and that moving the king's pawn was "best by test". -- Wikipedia
American Champions Bobby Fischer, Steinitz and Morphy all liked 1. e4! I believe it promotes The most rapid development possible. In just 1 move White Occupys the Center with a pawn and releases the Queen and King's Bishop for Development! No other move does as much! If e4 is not played at move 1 it may require preparation to be played, as it isn't supported like the Queen's Pawn.
If you like an Open Game, with Tactical Combinations, then you should play e4!
If on the other hand you like a Quiet Positional Game, with Closed Positions then !.d4 is better suited for you!
For me I like Hand to Hand Combat! Most of my games are over at move 25. I do not care much for subtle positional movements behind Closed Pawn Chains. I would say e4forme!!
e4 or d4? Of course e4 is better! d4 is boring and closed.e4 is much more exciting and open. Masters play e4 more than d4.
Maybe grandmasters play e4 not because it is objectively superior move for everyone else but because they know their stuff and can handle the scores of e4 openings. Experts love to do what everyone else can't.
I'm a chess newb so the last thing I want to do is have to memorize scores of openings and tons of variations just on the sicilian just to play a decent e4 game.
I also like the idea of boring slow games because everyone else seems to hate them so much. :)
"1.d4 is the only move which controls three central squares. No other move controls more than two. For instance, 1.e4 controls 'd5' and 'f5' but 'e4' is occupied by white's pawn but the square itself is not protected. 1.d4 controls 'c5', 'e5', and the queen protects the pawn on 'd4'. Dr. Hans Berliner, in his book The System, used this logic to determine that 1.d4 is the correct first move for white."
Ref: Open Encyclopedia of Chess Openings - topic 1.12
But "If there are no forced wins in chess but numerous openings lead to forced draws, who can say one draw is better than another? Therefore there may well be multiple lines of 'perfect play.'"
Losing an e4 game is like being shot in the head.
Losing a d4 game is contracting a terminal disease and dying a slow, painful death.
I play 1. e4 exclusively, but unfortunately this move suffers in matches. When you have to win with white nobody wants to face the Berlin Wall or Petroff.
Please save me reading this topic once again!
That reasoning is very superficial, and I don't think it can be taken seriously.
Although that could go for nearly all of the comments actually trying to figure out which one is the best move.
I have heard from a GM that you should only play d4 w/ a 2000+ rating
For those who think d4 is boring, PLAY MERAN
1.d4 seems more positional than tactical in its nature.
1.e4 is vice versa
Due to the kaleidoscopic nature of e4 and the Siclian problem and drawish Russian game I switched to d4.
Chemwong wrote:
Due to the kaleidoscopic nature of e4 and the Siclian problem and drawish Russian game I switched to d4.
For all the problems of the Sicilian, you just have to ask how much you want to face the Kings Indian Defense. And as for the drawish Russian or Petroff's Defense, I have yet to face it in a tournament. Most Black players of 1...e5 are betting on getting a point by wrestling away the momentum, and not struggling for 50 moves to squeak out a draw.
That's ture:)
The most complex response against d4 is Nf6, where Many lines of Queen's gambit could be treated as a special case of this due to transposition.
(It is worthy to note that after 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4, 2. ...d5? is incorrect way to transpose it to Slav/QGD. 3. cxd5! give Black a garbrage Marshall Defense. Black needs to play either ...e6 or ...c6 before going back to QG lines)
Personally I just switched to Catalan System against Kings indian and its relatives. In KID games there are quite a lot of case where white has mobile pawn center or central passed pawn(s) where white is pushing it or start king side attack where black is undermining the centre/ blocking the pawns. It is exciting to play. :)
d4 has the slav where white can still get something e4 has the caro cann and french which is a big slap in the face to any e4 player where they cant get anything if played against a well prepared oponnent,
Let's put it this way, when I play e4, I win about 46% of the time, when I play d4, I win around 76% of the time. I like d4.
Edit: 51% with e4, 71% of the time with d4.
I think the misconception behind 1d4 being boring is that the games take longer. I've played the Ruy Lopez and realized that I was in a losing position after 13 moves.
In e4 openings, you worry about about tactics first ending with a decent position. In d4 openings you worry about position first ending with good tactical opportunities. In d4 a mistake won't lead to an immediate loss of a piece, but it could lead to a knight invasion giving the other player a strong attack.