Bobby Fisher about 1: e4:
¨Best by test¨
1: e4 often gives a sharp game (if white and black wants they can get a quiet game, but often it's hardly without tactics.
1: d4 is generally less tactics, but again, Kings Indian and Grunfeld refutes this rule. Normally, after 1: .. d5, the best player simply outmanouvres his opponent in 80 moves.
Modern masters prefer the last one, since they want a small edge with white. An extremely sharp game is hardly the way to keep an edge (since a small inaccuary loose the game or the edge), and in d4 you can make a few mistakes and still be in the game.
Learning d4 is very important! even if your repertoire is exclusivly based on 1: e4!?. Bobby Fisher had the ability to play 1: d4 openings (he used c4 to transpose to d4 against Spassky in 1972). He used 1: e4 99% or something in his career, but he could crush his opponents with d4 too.
If you like tactics, e4 is best, d4 should be played (so you learn more positional chess)
If you like positional chess, d4 is best, but you should play 1: e4!!
The more I play chess I am confronted with the idea that all of the best players play 1.d4 and this is the staple that gets them many of their wins.
I started playing 1.e4 almost exclusively, due to my experiences from my experiments and things I read that recommend beginners start with the King's Pawn Opening. I am not going to argue what is stronger. My opinion is that d4 is stronger than e4, though e4 in it's own way is quite formidable and shouldn't be scoffed at.
I think this because of, what I see when I look at stats from master's games in the game explorer. I also think this because, I get absolutely demolished by d4 players and can normally give an e4 player a decent game if they are rated within a few hundred points of me. I tend to only lose a few pawns for the difference in my e4 games and lose pieces and or pawns in my d4 games.
So my question is, how far can e4 carry you without learning d4 ? Or, how will you know when you have a good enough handle on 1. e4 to start learning 1.d4 ? It seems to me all of the top GM's play both and almost flawlessly well.