e4
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Is e4 a good opening and why so?
Yes, It is a good opening.
yes. you simultaneously make a move for the center of the board and activate the queen and a bishop. personally i kind of think it is beaten to death, and i like using the english (1. c4). its still a popular opening, but most people have far less experience with it than they do 1. e4
Sure. Your goal in the opening is to develop your pieces and control the center. 1.e4 controls d5 and opens lines for your light-squared bishop and queen to develop.
To learn what other opening moves are good and why, check this out.
fischer said 1.e4 best by test, he played 1.e4 508 times and all other opening moves combined 36 times (1.d4 only twice) according to chessgames.com... lets take a survey of other world champions
Steinitz played 1.e4 way more than 1.d4 (303e to 59d)...
Lasker also favored 1.e4 over 1.d4 (504e to 109d)...
Capa played 1.d4 a few more times than 1.e4 (199d to 135e)...
Alekhine played 50/50 (564d to 563e) with 1.d4 winning by one...
Euwe liked 1.d4 more than 1.e4 (405d to 197e)...
botvinik clearly favored 1.d4 (281d to 84e)...
Smyslov slightly favored 1.e4 (426e to 398d)...
Petrosian obviously liked 1.d4 (503d to 53e)
Tal, the attacker, liked 1.e4 overwhelmingly (894e to 197d)...
Spassky played 1.e4 way more than 1.d4 (675e to 387d)...
Karpov enjoyed 1.d4 more (898d to 566e)...
kasparov played 1.d4 a few more times than 1.e4 (518d to 454e)...
Kramnik playes 1.d4 twice as much as 1.e4 (411d to 199e)...
Anand takes after fischer and almost always playes 1.e4 (1006e to 98d)
lets tally the survey and see what the world champions think
1.e4=6567 vs 1.d4=4624 winner 1.e4 though Fischer and Anand kinda scew the results...so according to the champs 1.e4 IS best by test
but if you look at who played what, and not how many games, its real close 7 played 1.e4 more and 8 played 11.d4 more you could take Alekhine out since he was split almost 50/50 perfectly which would tie the result at 7 to 7
But in the world championship match Anand played d4 everytime I think. I wonder why if he favors e4 so much
He was trying to trick Kramnik and ruin his preperation.
some people just dont like the positions after 1.d4, im the opposite i dont like open games at all 1.e4 e5 Anand obviously likes open and semi-open positions, he beat kramnik right?! so he knows enough about 1.d4 to beat one of the worlds best at his own game! i think Anand might be the best active player right now and deserves the crown, though Topalov is a tremndous player...anand is like wine, hes getting better with age... to bad kasparov quit...
bobobbob> He was trying to trick Kramnik and ruin his preperation.
Yup, that was his motiviation. He said so during his New In Chess interview.