Center Game

The Center Game is a chess opening that begins with the moves:

1. e4 e5

2. d4 exd4

The game usually continues 3.Qxd4 Nc6, developing with a gain of tempo due to the attack on the white queen. (Note that 3.c3 is considered a separate opening: the Danish Gambit.)

The Center Game is an old opening. It was mostly abandoned by 1900 because no advantage could be demonstrated for White. Jacques Mieses, Ksawery Tartakower and Rudolf Spielmann seemed to be the last strong players who would adopt it. The Center Game was rarely played by elite players until Shabalov revived it in the 1980s. Later, Alexei Shirov, Michael Adams, Judit Polgár and Alexander Morozevich also contributed to the theory of the Center Game by forcing revaluation of lines long thought to favor Black. In recent years, the young player Ian Nepomniachtchi has also experimented with it.

White succeeds in eliminating Black's e-pawn and opening the d-file, but at the cost of moving the queen early and allowing Black to develop with tempo with 3...Nc6. In White's favor, after 4.Qe3, the most commonly played retreat, the position of the white queen hinders Black's ability to play ...d5. The back rank is cleared of pieces quickly which facilitates queenside castling and may allow White to quickly develop an attack. From e3, the white queen may later move to g3 where she will pressure Black's g7-square.