At the very top level where these guys are black has a few different ways of equalising against 1.e4. A few lines in 1..e5, and a few lines In the sicilian where white has not enough advantage.
By comparison 1.d4 has a few less lines,and even the most trying lines (gruenfeld, nimzo atm I think?) give white some slight advantage.
Of course this is a matter of centipawns, and is irrelevant if you're not playing at the professional level.
The disappearance of 1.e4
Sort:
Jun 7, 2014
0
#3
I would not be surprised if Anand is considering playing 1. d4 more often. In the match he lost against Carlsen, I think the only game where Carlsen had to defend while under pressure was the one time Anand played 1. d4.
It has nothing to do with e4 being worse than d4. It has to do with water contamination. Studies show that, around the world, water supplies are contaminated with significant amounts of estrogen, and this has lead to increased use of d4.
Jun 7, 2014
0
#5
They don't like the berlin, because to get winning chances, you must give black just as many winning chances, which is a little annoying on this level.
The Najdorf is difficult to get advantage against too
I do sort of agree that the Sicilian in particular equalizes quickly and easily for Black, whereas the most respected defense to 1.d4--the Nimzo, still gives White a slight edge.
I don't keep up with the top level, but it's most likely that it's just simply flavor of the moment.
The main lines of the Exchange Grunfeld and Qc2 Nimzo are probably no less equal than the main line Berlin/Marshall/Breyer, but at Super-GM level, it's easier to win in the former.
Interesting article. Thanks for posting mnag ...
help me how to advance to avoid blunders in the middle game mostly misses on capitalising from slight advantages
Aug 11, 2025
0
#11
I remember Magnus and Ian got a question during their world championship which they thought were objectively better, and they both answered 1.e4.
I just watched a pod cast with Andras Toth (One of the Top Chess coaches in the west) where he stated "At the top" due to modern Chess engines... it's become incredibly hard to get a theoretical advantage in a main line. He goes on to state they are now playing for positions with a lot of depth and scope.
This probably is accounting some of what we are seeing.
Aug 11, 2025
0
#13
1. e4 is the by far the most played out move in the game. When you choose an 1. e4 repertoire you have to bear this in mind, otherwise the opponent just plays 200 elo points higher due to having seem the position a thousand times. As someone who has played alot of openings i can tell you the difference in how the opponent feels to play after 1. e4 is extremely noticeable. But I think if you choose your lines carefully you can mitigate this for the most part.
The french / sicilian are the two most problematic lines. There's not alot better against the french than to play theory, however if you do play theory I think you can get a good position reliably. CK, e4/e5, and Scandi I find to be not problematic whatsoever for white.
Sicilian is really the hardest one to deal with, and whether to play 1. e4 for me comes down to whether I want to face a sicilian. If you really buckle down and know the sicilian theory you can do well as white, it's just an enormous amount of theory.
But to get an interesting game that hasn't been played a thousand times you must technically give up advantage, and at that point one could argue it's better to just play some other moves... I've found success with 1. b3, 1. Nc3, or 1. d4 w/ the Trompowsky / Jobava / Colle transpositions. Still the 1. e4 positions just play very naturally for white and there is something appealing about them.
Hey I was wondering why 1.e4 has recently been disappearing from use at the 2750 level? The following is based on the data gathered from the last 5 white games of the Super GMs from Gashimov Memorial, Norway Chess etc
1. GM-Magnus Carlsen (2881) : 1.d4 (4 times), 1.c4 (1 time)
2. GM-Levon Aronian (2815): 1.d4 (4 times), 1.e4 (1 time)
3. GM-Alexander Grischuk (2792): 1.d4 (4 times) 1.c4 (1 time)
4. GM-Fabiano Caruana (2791): 1. d4 (2 times) 1.e4 (3 times)
5. GM-Viswanathan Anand (2785): 1.e4 (5 times)
Except Anand, all GMs seem to be migrating towards 1.d4....Others I haven't included in the list like Mamedyarov, Kramnik and Nakamura too.
The intriguing part is Carlsen...the Norwegian likes 1.e4 a lot but has refrained from using it...is he saving it up to unleash on Anand in the world championship?