The opening move c4 is OK. It's nothing special. One reason that it isn't played more often is that it can transpose into a huge number of different systems... everything from the Queen's Gambit to the King's Indian to the Maroczy Bind Sicilian (an e4 opening) to the Reti System to the Dutch Defense (etc). It takes a lot of preparation in various openings before you can play it with confidence.
Why not c4
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In general (does not apply to everything), c4 and e4 are passive positional openings, whereas e4 leads to tactical exciting positions. So, relatively speaking, c4 and d4 are popular at the master level and e4 is more popular here,
I've played 1. c4 thousands of times, and I intend to continue doing so because I like it. I am therefore unwilling to argue against it, and I'm not good enough for you to accept my advice if I was to argue for it, anyway.
Database says that c4 has higher winning chnace that anything. And database shows of master games. it is the fourth.Shouldn't it be the first played but masters?
Practically, d4 is better than c4, because the move d4 opens the line for your queen and bishop, while c4 is just opens a line (diagonal) for the queen. And when you play d4, you can play c4 after any move. When you play c4, you cannot play d4 in any case, for example after c4-e5.
But e4 is the simplest to play, and it is recommended for beginners and intermediate players, because everybody should play open games first.
But of course, even if you play e4 there is no guarantee for that it will be an open game, since there are openings like the french or caro-kann, which can be closed.
Oh, and c4 can transpose into the queen's gambit.
Apr 7, 2013
0
#7
JairoPCJr wrote:
Database says that c4 has higher winning chnace that anything. And database shows of master games. it is the fourth.Shouldn't it be the first played but masters?
Your analysis is subject to "sampling bias".
The on-line data-base will only list a game under "c4" if it doesn't transpose to some other opening. For instance, if a game starts with 1.c4 and then transposes to a Maroczy Bind Sicilian Defense, it will be listed in the data-base under "Maroczy Bind Sicilian Defense". The same remark applies to games that start with 1.c4 and then transpose to a King's Indian, or to a Gruenfeld, or to a Queen's Gambit, or whatever.
... so your "high winning percentages" only consider games that start with 1.c4 and in which the Black player deliberately avoids any transposition to a well-known opening.
Tks.This I did nor know
I read really a lot about c4 and it is flawless and has higher winning chance than e4 or d4.Why isn't it more played?