Timeline for Why do masters open 1.d4 more often than 1.c4?
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| Sep 19, 2022 at 8:16 | comment | added | Inertial Ignorance | @Hauptideal Yup that's definitely the case. 1.c4 can offer more flexibility by avoiding those 2 major openings you mentioned. It can also be restrictive in that it allows 1...e5/1...c5, but if you're the type of player who doesn't mind those positions then 1.c4 is a nice move order. And then there's 1.Nf3 with its own set of positive and negative subtleties. | |
| Sep 16, 2022 at 15:09 | comment | added | Hauptideal | @InertialIgnorance this is a really great answer with good advice. We could add, that 1.c4 is often only used by GMs to avoid certain openings or move orders (e.g. Grünfeld- or Nimzo-Indian) and transpose to regular d4 opening structures in most cases anyhow. | |
| May 14, 2018 at 20:59 | comment | added | Inertial Ignorance | @D M The stats on 1.c4 are extremely reliable due to all the games, but compared to 1.d4 they're less reliable to a really small degree. This is why I believe 1.c4 scores something like 0.5-1% better than 1.d4, when it should be reversed. | |
| May 14, 2018 at 19:15 | comment | added | thb | @GuySchalnat: you might elaborate your interesting comment, making it an answer. | |
| May 14, 2018 at 18:40 | comment | added | Guy Schalnat | I'll add that the opening at the lower levels of you and I are more about getting into the type of game where you are better than your average opponent. I've had good luck with 1.Nf3, 2.b3 because I was far better with inventing openings on the fly than memorizing long sequences of moves, and my opponents usually were the opposite. | |
| May 14, 2018 at 15:52 | comment | added | D M | I don't think the stats on c4 are less reliable to any significant degree; it may be six times less common, but that's still over a hundred thousand games, which is plenty for the stats to be reliable. | |
| May 14, 2018 at 4:18 | history | answered | Inertial Ignorance | CC BY-SA 4.0 |