I ranked all 20 first moves for white.

I haven't posted much here yet, and when I did I gave off a bad first impression. So I decided to show a more complete set of my views in the opening by ranking all 20 of whites first moves. My criteria was a combination of realistic potential, and how logical it is to choose said opening. It's gonna be controvertial, but that wasn't intended. Please let me know your thoughts on it.

Bottom tier:
All 1st moves are playable. That being said, some are better than others, and this tier contains the “others.”

#20 Amar Opening (Nh3)
It has no direct or indirect impact on the center in comparison to most moves, and it gives your opponent a chance to develop properly, and cripple your structure. In exchange you get the G file, which at this point is absolutely useless! It doesn’t even have the likelihood of causing black to mess up.

#19 Barnes Opening (f3)
This opening only works well if black plays d4 on its first move, or does a response weird enough to make up for you being crazy enough to do this opening. The reason it’s not at last is because it has some potential if black does d4, which is definitely a realistic move.

#18 Ware Opening (a4)

The pawn advance itself accomplishes nothing, and the rook is not getting developed any time soon (unless it’s the only piece that develops, because it gets chased around), so there isn’t anything good about it. If you press the pawn forward, black can just dodge the pawn trade, and be way ahead on development. Since it is rarely played, I’m not impressed with it’s having such a high win ratio, either.

#17 Clemenz Opening (h3)

It doesn’t mess white up that much, but it does slightly cripple your king side (albeit with potential for it to make your king side castling better afterward).

#16 Polish Opening (b4)

Ideally white trades its b pawn for black’s e pawn, which on paper is ideal. The problem is that black already has the center controlled by the time you get to press this advantage. This works better as black.

#15 Sodium Attack (Na3)

The reason that this one has such a high win-loss record is that not a lot of games were played under it. Of course, there is potential for it, which is why it did well in the few games it was played in. If the black plays e4 you can play Nc4 and threaten it. Or you can let them cripple your queen side structure and move your bishop to b2, thus threatening the king pawn. That way you can still castle well on the king side. But still, I just can’t put it higher. I still just can’t grasp why you’d rather move your knight to a3 over c3.

Middle tier:
These are mostly moves that are fine but seem wrong to do on move 1. The next 4 were super close, as 3 of them were all ones that basically let black decide which opening they turn into and need no further explanation, as the statistics of them were the tie breaker. The other one is good but super risky, and was either better than all the other 3 or worse than all of them. I wound up choosing better, since there’s at least a reason to choose it for its individuality. I don’t like letting my opponent choose my moves.

#14 Van’t Kruijs Opening (e3)

#13 Mieses Opening (d3)

#12 Van Geet Opening (Nc3)

#11 Grob Opening (g4)

This is actually a really fun opening. Many players (even advanced ones) won’t know how to respond. If they do d5 you do Bg2 which is called the “Grob Gambit” and will mess them up. The main catch to it is that you won’t have as good of a castle on either side. Don’t do it against a GM though, they won’t fall for any of the tricks in it.

#10 Saragossa Opening (c3)

If you’re playing against someone who can’t handle the Caro-Kann defense, you can do this. If black does e5 you can do d3; black will likely do d5 you can do d4, and voila. You’ve managed to reach the Caro-Kann as white. Unfortunately, this also blocks the knight from coming out, so I can’t put it much higher.

#9 Kadas Opening (h4)

I think this is ridiculously underrated! It has the potential to wreak havoc on the kingside, and you can castle on the queenside. It’s just that then black is winning in development by a sizable margin. 

#8 Nimzowitsch-Larsen Attack (b3)

Solid move. Gets you a queenside fianchetto. I don’t know why that would be your #1 priority in the game, but if it is then this move is great for you to start with.

Top Tier:
These are obviously the moves that I would recommend using, most of them are moves that I like, and one of them is really not my style, but has good results. Strangely that wasn’t the lowest one though it was quite close.

#7 Bird’s Opening (f4)
It’s this low because you can’t fully discount statistics. For some reason though,  Ireally like this opening. It stops e5, and lets you get this pawn out in addition to the kingsode knight. If it weren’t for the low record it would definitely be higher.

#6 King's Fianchetto Opening (g3)

If you’re doing this, you may as well do nf3 first. It still has great results though.

#5 Anderssen Opening (a3)

I think this is the most underrated first move. With this you can essentially play as black with this pawn stopping a minor piece from ever coming too close for comfort. It also stops you from chasing it away when it comes, but this is still a nice play.

#4 King’s Pawn Opening (e4)

Most people will hate me for this, but it is overrated. It’s predictable, everyone knows how to respond to it, it lets black decide how open or closed the game is… It still gets the basics done though, so I have to put it this high.

#3 English Opening (c4)

This is a really good opening that stops d5 without committing a center pawn, or tampering with the kingside castle.

#2 Reti Opening (nf3)
It stops e5, and prepares for the King’s Indian Attack, which is a really good opening (don’t try it if you’re a beginner though).

#1 Queen's pawn Opening (d4)I love this move so much! Queen’s Gambit, London Accelerated System… my favorite openings for white!

#2 deters e5 not d5

#3 doesn’t stop d5 (Anglo-Scandinavian).

from what I have experiencing lol because I play those two openings with both colors.

#1, you had me at London….

Thanks for being the first to respond. Yeah, I said the wrong thing for #2 and have edited it. #3 as good as stops d5, because Anglo-Scandinavian is terrible (center pawn for wing pawn with no compensation).

e4 is the best. It prepares to develop both the kingside bishop and the queen. It allows the most rapid development. Often white is ready to castle on move 4 and can then open up the centre.

Black doesn't decide whether the position is open or closed. White just opens or closes the position depending on which is most favourable against each defence.

d4 is next best. It prepares to develop the queenside bishop. Even though it doesn't develop the queen's diagonal, white's central pawn is already defended by the queen so white is very solid.

Nf3 and c4 are ok but don't prepare the deployment of white's pieces like the top 2.

I wish I ran into more Scandinavian players these days, it’s an easy game to play.

I have been running into a lot of KID players this week which is thorn to an English and Reti player like myself. Hopefully I get a string of bad players soon….

I mean this line is nice as Scandinavian: 

It's just the Anglo Scandinavian that's bad. Or of course if you take with the queen right away in the regular Scandinavian.

I dunno about that. E4 has a lot of theory, strong defences and cheap tricks that I prefer to bypass.

I was stuck at 1200 with e4 to say bye bye and never looked back.

Every opening has theory. There are a lot of strong defences against d4 as well. Comparing them like this is just wrong.

If you didn't get along with it, that's just because of how you play.

White has plenty of strong attacking setups against any defence black plays and often seizes the initiative early on.

I respectfully disagree. The Queen's gambit leads to way better center control if accepted, and less cheap tricks against it if declined. e4 leads to nuisance moves like French defense if black wants it closed, or ifblack wants it open they may do Petrov's defense. (These are just examples of course.)

The comment about black deciding whether the position is open or closed is totally false.

Take the Caro Kann for example. White can play the Panov Attack.

This is white deciding to open the position.

Or play the Advance.

This is white deciding to close the position.

If accepted. Accepting the Queen's Gambit is the 3rd most popular move. Black can decide to keep the position closed by declining.

Or the Sicilian.

This is white deciding to open the position.

This is white deciding to keep the position closed.

Panov attack can be kept fairly closed by 

Maybe not 100% closed, but Black definitely gets its way more than white. As for the advance, that does force it to stay closed as far as I know, but if black is doing the Caro Kann, there's a good chance they want it closed.

Opening theory is the least of my worries and next to non existent these days to me.

I prefer to spend my limited time on basic tactics training, middle game plans, ideas, strategies and end games.

And having fun.

Do you know anyone who does d4 and wants an open game, other than having the Queen's Gambit excepted? And I think you missed the other half of the sentence about the Queen's gambit "(A)nd less cheap tricks against it if declined."

Edit: Addressing your next comment I happen to agree there, which is why I rarely do Sicilian.

That's not closed. It's still open because white has the semi-open e file and open diagonals.

It doesn't matter if they wanted that or not. It was still white's choice.

There are many occasions in queen's pawn openings where black can play a more open or closed defence. The Grünfeld amd Tarrasch are more open defences. The King's Indian and QGD Orthodox are more closed defences.

e4 openings are more fun because they are more open, tactical positions. You don't need to learn so many lines of opening theory when you have the tactical instincts to play e4 openings.

The only reason people think there's too much opening theory is because they blunder a tactic and then say it's because it was theory or the opening or any other reason than their own play.

Is an Open Catalan not an open position?

Thats false advertising! I want my money back from the gas station attendant guy…

The Sicilian is my favourite opening. It's the most fun.