What is the best opening move:e4 or d4?

1. e4

I like both. I'm starting to discover I am a more positional player, so I lean towards d4, but that's misleading because there are also positional e4 openings/possibilities. I think if your a positional player opening with e4, Black has more oportunities to turn it tactical.

I would say e3, c4 then d4

1.Nf3!! Deserves the double exclam.

I would say E4 if you could avoid the sicilians

e4

Nf3

A primary aim of the opening is to control the centre.

1.d4 doesn't prevent 1..c5 and it only deters 1..e5, though it is still playable.

1.e4 doesn't prevent 1..d5 and more or less prevent 1..f5 though there are still some amatuers who play it.

1.Nf3!! prevents ..e5 and ..g5!!!

We can clearly see which is superior

(im trolling of course)

OMG I am laughing so hard at the stupidity of the vast majority of the first 56 posts of this thread.

For starters, based on this one I quoted, let me tell you something.  No move completely prevents any particular move by Black.  I play 1.d4, 1.c4, and 1.Nf3 as White.  Each have their pros and cons.  1.Nf3 doesn't prevent e5 any more than 1.d4 does.  1.d4 e5 is bad.  1.Nf3 e5 is bad.  1.d4 d6 2.c4 e5 is fine for Black.  1.Nf3 d6 2.c4 e5 is fine for Black.  If you play both moves, d4 and Nf3 on moves 1 and 2, order doesn't matter.  1.d4 d6 2.Nf3 Bg4 and 1.Nf3 d6 2.d4 Bg4 are the same position.

As for the rest of the fools on here, 1.e4 does not equate to a tactical game, and 1.d4 does not equate to a positional or "slow" game.  For example, someone earlier made a comment that 1.d4 equates to taking something like 15 moves just to get things going (paraphrasing, not quoting).  Uhm...let's see, 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.f4 O-O 6.Nf3 c5 7.d5 e6 8.Be2 exd5 9.cxd5 Re8 (9...Bg4 is better and scores slightly over 50% for Black, and is the reason I no longer play the Four Pawns Attack) 10.e5 dxe5 11.fxe5 Ng4 12.Bg5 Qb6 13.O-O Nxe5 14.Nxe5 (or 14.d6).  Let's see here.  Under 15 moves and White's done nothing, huh?

Also, you can't even generalize that an opening is completely positional or tactical.  Take the Slav Defense.  Known by most as one of the most solid, positional defenses there is to 1.d4.  Anybody ever face the Geller Gambit?  That's 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 dxc4 5.e4 (instead of 5.a4).  I did once.  I won, but it was a game that featured far more tactics and was far more wild than your typical Najdorf Sicilian.  Now take the Latvian Gambit, known as a wild, unsound defense.  After the main line, 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 f5 3.Nxe5 Qf6 4.d4 d6 5.Nc4 fxe4 6.Nc3 Qg6 7.f3 exf3 followed by 8...Nf6 or 8...Be7 (8...Nc6 is now deemed dubious), you have a very positional endgame at hand once the Queens come of in a couple of moves.

If you are going to be any good at chess, you must know the common tactical themes, you must understand positional ideas, you must understand strategy, and you must be able to calculate.  If you don't understand strategy and positional play, and all you do throughout the game is think with the "I do this and he does this" mentality, you will forever fail at this game!

Too long, didn't read.

Please refer to the last line of my post, which you even quoted but somehow failed to notice.

Answering a non-serious post does not mean one cannot be serious.

But I tend to agree the effort was wasted.

I experienced a temporary rating increase by switching to 1. d4. Apparently most of the players on this site neglect their Black versus 1. d4 opening.

Just play which ever first move you like. With d4 prepare something against the QGD, Slav, semi-Slav, e6 Indian, KID, Grunefeld, the Dutch, Modern Benoni and Benko. With e4 you have to face 1. e4 e5. Nf3 Nc6 (or play some garbage line), the Petroff, the Sicilian if you want the Open Sicilian that involves the Najdorf, the Dragon, the Kan, the Taminov, the Sveshinkov and a few other systems, the Caro-Kann, the French, Pirc and Alekine. You also have to face the Modern and Owens with either first move.

What ever you do, make sure to leave yourself enough time to actually play chess otherwise you might soon find yourself wondering away to more rewarding and less demanding hobbies.

1.Nh3 is best by test.

I would have to say either Nf3 or c4 for me... everyone today seems to have less knowledge on how to react to these openings than the usual e4 or d4.  Plus Stockfish 6 seems to like Nf3 over e4.  c4 has the highest win rate out of the 4 most common openings.

The question of e4 versus d4 is like the question "which is better, Marvel or DC?" There's not an answer - some people are fiercely loyal to one or the other, some people like both. If your goal is to play every opening (or read every comic), you've got to dig into both very deeply, but if your goal is just to have fun with something you enjoy, it's perfectly acceptable to find something you like and stick to it.

.......I like 1.d4......and DC comics......

I prefer 1 e4  and Marvel  

The best opening move is the move that works best for YOU.

"1. P-Q4

This is the best move on the board - and so is 1. P-K4 !" - Irving Chernev (1957)

1. C4 has the highest win:draw:loss ratio last i checked ;)