Chess Opening Theory/1. e4
King's Pawn Opening | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Position in Forsyth-Edwards Notation (FEN) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Moves: 1.e4 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
ECO code: B00–B99, C00–99 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Parent: Starting position | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Responses: |
1.e4 - King's Pawn OpeningEdit
White's assertive opening move opens lines for the queen and the king's bishop and fights for control of the squares d5 and f5. This move is popular at all levels of the game and was the favorite opening move of world champion Bobby Fischer, who called it "best by test".
Openings with 1.e4 are traditionally considered more sharp and attacking than those with 1.d4, but this is an extreme generalization, and both players will have many more opportunities to influence the type of position that appears.
With a pawn on e4, White's simplest plan is to play d4 on the next move, creating a strong 'classical' center.
Black's responsesEdit
It's useful to think of Black's responses to 1.e4 as motivated by one of the following counterplans:
- Establish a pawn on e5, securing a share of the centre for Black.
- Establish a pawn on d5, securing a share of the centre for Black.
- Attack White's e-pawn immediately.
- Leave White's e-pawn alone but prevent White from achieving the classical centre with e4 and d4.
- Ignore what White is doing, allow White to build the classical centre and deal with it later.
Plan 1Edit
Plan 1 (pawn on e5, share centre) can be carried out very simply with 1...e5. Black sees what White has and wants the same thing. However, White's argument is that moving first in a symmetrical position is eventually going to favour the player moving first.
Plan 2Edit
Plan 2 (pawn on d5, share centre) is the motivation behind 1...c6, the Caro-Kann Defence, and 1...e6, the French Defence. If Black tries to put a pawn on d5 immediately, White will capture it, so in order to maintain a pawn on d5 Black needs to be able to recapture with a pawn from either c6 or e6.
Plan 3Edit
Plan 3 (attack White's e pawn) leads to 1...d5, the Scandinavian Defence, and 1...Nf6, the Alekhine Defence.
Plan 4Edit
Plan 4 (prevent White's e4 & d4) is a pleasant side effect of 1...e5 (mentioned above for Plan 1).
But, with 1...c5, the Sicilian Defence, Black can prevent White's d4 advance and also create an asymmetrical position of attack and counter-attack. The Sicilian is by far the most popular reply to 1.e4 among top players.
Plan 5Edit
There are multiple ways of carrying out Plan 5 (ignore White's centre, deal with it later).
- 1...g6, the Modern Defence, signals Black's intention to put a bishop on g7 controlling a swathe of the centre, before deciding on further action.
- 1...d6 is the Pirc Defense.
In the Pirc Defense, the move 1...d6 prepares the move 2...Nf6. In Alekhine Defence (mentioned above for Plan 3), 1...Nf6 can be met by 2.e5 kicking the knight back. But, in the Pirc, 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.
So instead, White's usual move to defend the e-pawn is 3.Nc3. Now, White's d-pawn is vulnerable to the advances 3...c5 or 3...e5 because neither White's e-pawn nor c-pawn can defend it.
Plan 5 also covers a number of fringe options.
- 1...Nc6, the Nimzowitsch Defence. Black is able to react to 2.d4 with a thrust of either the d-pawn or e-pawn.
- 1...b6 is a similar idea to 1...g6 but doesn't have the benefit of preparing kingside castling.
- 1...a6 is mostly famous for having been played by Tony Miles against then World Champion Anatoly Karpov, and having thus acquired the name St. George Defence. Often Black will follow up with 2...b5, expanding on the queenside.
Rare ResponsesEdit
Other rare responses include:
- 1...f6?!, the Barnes Defense. 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 most influential grandmasters in the 19th century, with this opening. Its only benefit is that it gets out of theory.
- 1...f5?!, the Fred Defense/Duras Gambit. This is not too good of an idea. Black gets a lead in development but little compensation for the sacrificed pawn after 2.exf5 Nf6. This can lead to another variation of the Fool's Mate after 2.exf5 g5?? 3.Qh5#
- 1...b5? simply loses a pawn to 2.Bxb5.
- 1...g5?!, the Borg Defense (opposite of Grob) is another option Black has, however it is a bad one because it does weaken 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...h5?!, the Pickering Defense simply wastes a tempo and weakens Black's position.
- 1...a5?!, the Ware Defense is equally weak as 1...h5. It just wastes a tempo.
- 1...h6?!, the Carr Defense, is another time-wasting move, but it usually transposes into the Borg Defense anyways after 2.d4 g5.
StatisticsEdit
- Approximate chances
- White win 39%, Draw 29%, Black win 32%.
- Estimated next move popularity
- c5 43%, e5 25%, e6 12%, c6 7%, d6 4%, g6 3%, d5 3%, Nf6 2%, Nc6 0.6%, other moves less than 0.5%.
Theory tableEdit
For explanation of theory tables, see theory table and for notation, see algebraic notation.
- 1.e4
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Sicilian Defence | e4 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 |
= |
Caro-Kann Defence | ... c6 |
d4 d5 |
Nc3 dxe4 |
Nxe4 Bf5 |
Ng3 Bg6 |
h4 h6 |
Nf3 Nd7 |
h5 Bh7 |
Bd3 Bxd3 |
= |
French Defence | ... e6 |
d4 d5 |
Nc3 Nf6 |
Bg5 Be7 |
e5 Nfd7 |
Bxe7 Qxe7 |
f4 O-O |
Nf3 c5 |
Qd2 Nc6 |
= |
Pirc Defence | ... d6 |
d4 Nf6 |
Nc3 g6 |
f4 Bg7 |
Nf3 O-O |
Bd3 Na6 |
O-O c5 |
d5 Rb8 |
Qe2 Nc7 |
∞ |
Scandinavian Defence | ... d5 |
exd5 Qxd5 |
Nc3 Qa5 |
d4 Nf6 |
Nf3 c6 |
Bc4 Bf5 |
Bd2 e6 |
Nd5 Qd8 |
Nxf6 Qxf6 |
= |
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 |
+/= |
Barnes Defense | ... f6 |
d4 e6 |
Bd3 Ne7 |
Nf3 c5 |
d5 d6 |
O-O Ng6 |
Nc3 e5 |
Re1 Be7 |
Ne2 O-O |
+/= |
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ReferencesEdit
- Kasparov, Garry, & Keene, Raymond 1989 Batsford chess openings 2. ISBN 0-8050-3409-9.
- Nunn's Chess Openings. 1999. John Nunn (Editor), Graham Burgess, John Emms, Joe Gallagher. ISBN 1-8574-4221-0.
- Modern Chess Openings: MCO-14. 1999. Nick de Firmian, Walter Korn. ISBN 0-8129-3084-3.
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