Surprised no one asked this of OP, but you mean in general, as in for Super Grandmasters or Stockfish, or you mean the best at your rating level of 1100-1300? Not remotely the same. For example, I saw a stastical analysis in one of the lichess articles that said that below 2000, after 1. E4 E5 2. Nf3 Nc6; the move 3. C3 scores best for white because black players do not play the best moves which give black easy equality.
@tpr said [^](/forum/redirect/post/9jrfGXQX)
> "white obviously has an easier game"
> * But white is more likely to overextend.
yeah but white still has an overall advantage; for example he can just play an opening like the Catalan Opening and just get a more pleasant game without a risk of overextending
@ArtofDefeat said [^](/forum/redirect/post/KVVcex2W)
> Surprised no one asked this of OP, but you mean in general, as in for Super Grandmasters or Stockfish, or you mean the best at your rating level of 1100-1300? Not remotely the same. For example, I saw a stastical analysis in one of the lichess articles that said that below 2000, after 1. E4 E5 2. Nf3 Nc6; the move 3. C3 scores best for white because black players do not play the best moves which...
that's why my main opening is the Ponziani :D
as someone with lots of experience playing g4 I discovered something interesting.
For the very best of players playing only rapid or slower...
the result of the opening 1. g4 d5 2. e3 e5 3. d4 is an 80% win rate for white
Fundamentally a main idea of g4 is that black likes developing like Nf6 in general, but Nf6 g5 and you have to be very good at chess to take advantage of things positionally.
Practically speaking I think a super basic e4 opening but you blunder the queen early because you moved it too much is the worst opening... system?
as someone with lots of experience playing g4 I discovered something interesting.
For the very best of players playing only rapid or slower...
the result of the opening 1. g4 d5 2. e3 e5 3. d4 is an **80% win rate for white**
Fundamentally a main idea of g4 is that black likes developing like Nf6 in general, but Nf6 g5 and you have to be very good at chess to take advantage of things positionally.
Practically speaking I think a super basic e4 opening but you blunder the queen early because you moved it too much is the worst opening... system?
(@)tpr said [^](/forum/redirect/post/sWcbsRu8)
> At top level they mostly draw, and there are only slightly more white wins than black wins.
I think the idea behind "white first move advantage" is not that white is winning or even that there is an advantage, but that white is the one pushing for a win. Black first has to equalize before then getting some advantage and pushing for a win.
So the concept is useful to exist for black because black knows, I'm trying to equalize. And it is useful for white because white knows, I should be pushing for a win or if I'm lazy, letting black equalize in exchange for super easy draw. Psychologically something like that. vaguely related example of pushing for a win: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87jIJ75kzJ0
As I expect most of us on here are relatively normal players then the best opening is one that suits your personal style. I'm terrible with 1.e4 and much prefer the control I get with 1.d4. Again with black I play the French defence or the Dutch Stonewall with d5 first. Obviously I play lots of other defences for fun but only rarely an open game. Are any of my openings the "best" ? Obviously not, but they sometimes work for me.
The worst? Play 1.g4 against me and you will lose 4 times in 5. I love playing against the Grob.
Also, when I played OTB at classical time limits I had the better record playing the French defence compared to white, for many years. Not by much but it was noticeable.
If we stick to White openings for which books are published, my guess would be the Trompowsky Attack.
Knights before bishops, people!
(@)BLUNDERkingTHAgoat: The amount of times that I have seen Lichessians ignore statistics and logic in favour of long, convoluted breakdowns of vague and borderline irrelevant philosophical arguments is...concerning to say the least.
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(@)StevenEmily: When there are so few games played with a line, the statistics are less reliable. If 1. g4 d5 2. e3 e5 3. d4 became more popular, then it would become its own downfall; people would start studying it and thus kill its main strengths: Surprise and experience advantages.
@shadow1414 said [^](/forum/redirect/post/hA2E1wLx)
> (@)BLUNDERkingTHAgoat: The amount of times that I have seen Lichessians ignore statistics and logic in favour of long, convoluted breakdowns of vague and borderline irrelevant philosophical arguments is...concerning to say the least.
White has lesser openings to study, thats quite obvious.