Chess Opening Theory/1. e4

__NOTOC__ King's Pawn opening B00–B99, C00–99 Starting position 1...c5 - Sicilian Defence 1...e5 - Open Game 1...e6 - French Defence 1...c6 - Caro-Kann Defence 1...d5 - Scandinavian Defence 1...d6 - Pirc Defence 1...g6 - Modern Defence 1. e4 · King's Pawn opening Best by test. — Bobby FischerFischer Bobby Wikipedia:Bobby Fischer 1969 My 60 Memorable Games https://archive.org/details/my60memorablegam00fisc registration 45. Fischer–Bisguier, New York State Open 1963 Simon and Schuster 978-0-671-21483-8 280 1. e4, the King's Pawn Opening, is the most popular first move at all levels of the game. 1. e4 opens lines to develop the queen and the king's bishop. It also fights for control of the centre. 1. e4 directly controls d5 and f5, which may or may not be relevant later because Black, if they wanted to, could just take those squares away again by playing 1...e6. If White wants to develop some pieces, the most important square they control by playing 1. e4 is, in fact, the e4 square itself: as long as there's a white pawn on e4, there can't be a black pawn on e4, which means White's g1-knight can be developed to f3 without fear of getting kicked away by a pawn and losing a tempo. Black has several ways to respond. The main idea is to find a way to prevent White from achieving or maintaining a two-pawn centre with both e4 and d4. They may try to: Control the d4 square. Attack White's e4 pawn directly. Prepare to establish their own pawn on d5. Let White build a centre but prepare to undermine it later. Control d4 If Black can control d4 with a pawn, then it will be hard for White to establish pawns on both d4 and e4 and keep them there. Black has two pawn pushes that control the d4 square: 1...e5 the Open game, and 1...c5 the Sicilian defence. It is no accident that these are the most popular continuations at all levels.1...c5 and 1...e5 comprise 46% and 23% of continuations in the Lichess Master database, and 19% and 45% in the Lichess database. 1...e5 lets Black take space in the centre. It is the classical reply: traditionally 1. e4 openings are divided into 1...e5, the Open game, and the rest, the Semi-Open games. Now if 2. d4, Black can take it and prevent White from controlling all that central space. Just as 1. e4 helps White to indirectly control the e4 square, 1...e5 prevents White from playing 2. e5, and so ensures Black can develop their knight to f6. White's argument is that a symmetrical position is eventually going to favour the player moving first. White's usual continuation is 2. Nf3, a threat to eliminate the e5 pawn so that they may play d4 securely. 1...c5 is the mainline in master-level games today. If White plays d4, Black can take it with the flank c pawn, keeping their two more important central pawns. An asymmetric opening, it is thought of as more combative than 1...e5. 1. e4 e5 Open game 1. e4 c5 Sicilian defence Attack e4 Black can confront White's e-pawn immediately to open up the centre. 1...d5 is the Scandinavian defence. Black intends to eliminate White's centre, even if they have to give up hopes of a big centre of their own. It is less popular in tournament play than as a club-level reply, where part of its appeal is that it is very forcing and confrontational. White's response is almost always 2. exd5, then Black can recover the pawn if they so choose. 1...f5? is the risky Duras gambit. 2. exf5 and Black has succeeded in deflecting the e pawn away from the centre, but at the cost of a weakened kingside. 1...Nf6, the Alekhine defence, also attacks e4, but White will rarely allow Black to take it. It usually continues 2. e5 (kicking knight) Nd5 3. d4. Black's real idea is to allow White the centre for now and undermine it later. 1. e4 d5 Scandinavian game 1. e4 f5 Duras gambit 1. e4 Nf6 Alekhine defence Support d5 If Black can play a pawn to d5 and keep it there, they get to hold onto a share of the centre. If Black tries to put a pawn on d5 immediately, White will capture it (the Scandinavian defence, above), so in order to maintain a pawn on d5 Black needs to be able to recapture with a pawn from either c6 or e6. 1...e6 is the French defence. After 2. d4 d5, Black keeps a share of the centre, and White's continuations include opening the position with exd5 exd5, or closing the position with e5. The key disadvantage of the French defence is that Black's Queen-side bishop is a liability and hard to develop, because the e6 pawn blocks it in. 1...c6 is the Caro-Kann. This has the advantage of avoiding the unhappy French bishop, but instead it takes the c6 square away from Black's knight, and if Black should want to play c5 later, they have lost a tempo. 1. e4 e6 French defence 1. e4 c6 Caro-Kann Relinquish the centre 1. e4 d6 2. d4 Nf6 3. e5 dxe5 4. dxe5 Qxd1+ 5. Kxd1 Ng4 Position in the Pirc defence after 1. e4 d6 2. d4 Nf6 3. e5 dxe5 4. dxe5 Qxd1+ 5. Kxd1 Ng4! right 1 Black can relinquish control of the centre for now, looking to develop pieces instead. They want to later undermine the centre, and control it from afar with their pieces rather than their pawns. One way Black can control the centre from afar is by fianchettoing a bishop (developing it to the flank, to either g7 or b7, where it controls a long diagonal running through the centre). 1...g6 is the Modern defence. Black will follow with Bg7 to control a swathe of the centre before making more committal pawn moves. 1...b6 is Owen's defence. Black intends Bb7 to control the other long diagonal. Unlike the Modern, this doesn't have the benefit of preparing kingside castling. 1...d6 is the Pirc defence. Black would like to play Nf6 to control the centre. d6 is prophylaxis to prevent White from playing e5: after 1...d6 2. d4 Nf6, the move 3. e5 doesn't work because of 3...dxe5 4. dxe5 Qxd1+ 5. Kxd1 Ng4! forking the pawns on e5 and f2 (contrast 1...Nf6, the Alekhine defence). Black usually fianchettos the bishop to Bg7 in this opening as well. 1...Nc6, the Nimzowitsch defence, develops the knight to control d4 and e5. This allows 2. d4, and then Black can choose to respond with either 2...d5 or 2...e5. 1. e4 g6 Modern defence 1. e4 b6 Owen's defence 1. e4 d6 Pirc defence 1. e4 Nc6 Nimzowitsch defence Rare responses Other responses include: 1...a6, the St. George defence, mostly famous for having been played by Tony Miles against then World Champion Anatoly Karpov. Often Black will follow up with 2...b5, expanding on the queenside. 1...f6?, the Barnes Defence. A rare move that is not a good idea, as it removes the f6 square for the knight and weakens the kingside. Even so, Thomas Wilson Barnes (after whom it is named) beat Paul Morphy, one of the strongest chess players of the 19th century, with this opening. Its only benefit is that it gets out of theory. 1...g5?, the Borg Defence (opposite of Grob) is another option Black has, however it is a bad one because it weakens the kingside severely. The g5-pawn can serve as a hook for White (h4) later on. This also can lead to a Fool's Mate for Black. 1...a5?!, the Ware Defence is equally weak as 1...h5. It just wastes a tempo. 1...h5?!, the Pickering Defence simply wastes a tempo and weakens Black's position. 1...h6?!, the Carr Defence, is another time-wasting move, but it usually transposes into the Borg Defence anyways after 2. d4 g5. 1...Na6?! develops the b8-knight to an inferior square. 1...Nh6?! develops the g8-knight to an inferior square. 1...b5? simply loses a pawn to 2. Bxb5. Statistics move average 365Chess.com (big) Chess Tempo (all) chessgames.com Lichess (masters) Lichess (database) 1...c5 39.1% 41.4 43.0 41.2 46.3 23.4 1...e5 25.9 24.0 22.2 28.6 22.7 31.8 1...e6 12.4 13.1 12.9 12.0 12.1 11.8 1...c6 7.8 7.4 8.2 7.4 7.8 8.3 1...d5 4.1 3.5 3.2 2.0 2.0 9.9 1...d6 4.0 4.3 4.3 3.5 3.6 4.3 1...g6 3.1 3.0 3.0 2.7 2.9 3.9 1...Nf6 2.1 2.3 2.1 1.8 1.8 2.5 1...Nc6 0.8 0.7 0.7 0.5 0.5 1.4 1...b6 0.6 0.3 0.3 0.2 0.2 2.0 1...a6 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.0 0.3 1...f5 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.2 everything else 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.3 Theory table 1. e4   1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Evaluation Sicilian Defence ... c5 Nf3 d6 d4 cxd4 Nxd4 Nf6 Nc3 a6 Be3 e5 Nb3 Be6 f3 Be7 Qd2 O-O +/= Ruy Lopez ... e5 Nf3 Nc6 Bb5 a6 Ba4 Nf6 O-O Be7 Re1 b5 Bb3 d6 c3 Na5 Bc2 c5 +/- French Defence ... e6 d4 d5 Nc3 Nf6 Bg5 Be7 e5 Nfd7 Bxe7 Qxe7 f4 O-O Nf3 c5 Qd2 Nc6 +/= Caro-Kann Defence ... c6 d4 d5 Nc3 dxe4 Nxe4 Bf5 Ng3 Bg6 h4 h6 Nf3 Nd7 h5 Bh7 Bd3 Bxd3 +/= Scandinavian Defence ... d5 exd5 Qxd5 Nc3 Qa5 d4 Nf6 Nf3 c6 Bc4 Bf5 Bd2 e6 Nd5 Qd8 Nxf6 Qxf6 +/= Pirc Defence ... d6 d4 Nf6 Nc3 g6 f4 Bg7 Nf3 O-O Bd3 Na6 O-O c5 d5 Rb8 Qe2 Nc7 +/- Modern Defence ... g6 d4 Bg7 Nc3 d6 f4 a6 Nf3 b5 Bd3 Bb7 Qe2 Nc6 e5 Nh6 d5 Nb4 +/- Alekhine Defence ... Nf6 e5 Nd5 d4 d6 c4 Nb6 f4 dxe5 fxe5 c5 d5 e6 Nc3 exd5 cxd5 Qh4+ +- Nimzowitsch Defence ... Nc6 d4 d5 e5 Bf5 Nf3 e6 Bb5 a6 Bxc6+ bxc6 O-O c5 c3 cxd4 cxd4 h6 +- Owen Defence ... b6 d4 Bb7 Bd3 e6 Nf3 c5 c3 Nf6 Qe2 Be7 O-O Nc6 e5 Nd5 dxc5 bxc5 +/- St. George Defence ... a6 d4 b5 Nf3 Bb7 Bd3 Nf6 Qe2 e6 O-O c5 c3 d5 e5 Nfd7 dxc5 Nxc5 +/- Duras Gambit ... f5 exf5 Nf6 d4 d5 Bd3 c5 c3 c4 Bc2 e6 Qe2 Bd6 fxe6 Qe7 Nf3 Bxe6 +- Barnes Defence ... f6 d4 e6 Bd3 Ne7 Nf3 c5 d5 d6 O-O Ng6 Nc3 e5 Re1 Be7 Ne2 O-O +- Borg Defence ... g5 d4 Bg7 Bxg5 c5 c3 Qb6 Nf3 cxd4 cxd4 Nc6 Nc3!? Nxd4 Nd5! Qxb2 Rc1 Nxf3+ +- Ware Defence ... a5 d4 e6 Nc3 d5 Bd3 Nc6 Nf3 Nb4 Be2 dxe4 Nxe4 h6 O-O Nf6 Nxf6+ Qxf6 +- Pickering Defence ... h5 d4 e6 Nf3 d5 exd5 exd5 Bd3 Bd6 O-O Kf8 Re1 Nc6 h3 Nb4 Bf1 Bf5 +- Carr Defence ... h6 d4 e6 Bd3 d5 Nc3 c5 dxc5 Bxc5 exd5 exd5 Bb5+ Nd7 Qxd5 Qe7+ Qe4 a6 +/- 1...b5? ... b5 Bxb5 Bb7 Nc3 Nf6 Qe2 e6 Nf3 a6 Ba4 c5 O-O Nc6 Bxc6 Bxc6 Ne5 Bb7 +- All possible Black responses QuickNavigationNa6a6a5b6b5Nc6c6c5d6d5e6e5Nf6f6f5g6g5Nh6h6h5 References See also External links King's Pawn Game 365Chess: 1. e4 it:Teoria delle aperture negli scacchi/1. e4 fi:Shakkiaapinen/Peli/1. e4