Chess Opening Theory/1. d4/1...e6

1...e6 is the Horwitz defence. Black plays something less committal without showing their hand, and waits to see how White wants to approach the game. This can transpose into a myriad of different openings.

Uniquely, this is an invitation for White to transpose into a French defence with 2. e4.

2. c4 is the most common reply, where White keeps the game in Queen's pawn territory. Black can then transpose into a Dutch defence with 2...f5, an Indian defence with 2...Nf6, or a Queen's gambit declined with 2...d5. 2...Bb4+ is known as the Keres or Kangaroo defence.

Otherwise, White can play almost anything at this point: 2. Nf3 and 3. e3 if White is a Colle system player, 2. Bf4 should they happen to be a London player, 2. Nc6 and 3. Bf4 if they are a Jobava London player, etc, then Black transposes into their preferred line against these moves.

The Horwitz defence is named for Bernhard Horwitz, a "star" chess player of the group known as the Berlin Pleiades, who played it several times against Daniel Harrwitz in their 15-game match in Brighton, 1849.^[1][2]

1...e6 had earlier been tried by Howard Staunton in his 1843 match series against the strongest French player of the time Saint-Amant,^[3] though presumably the world collectively decided that enough things had been named after Staunton by that point. Staunton played it five times, and each game transposed into a Queen's gambit declined with 2. c4 d5. Though 1...e6 didn't bring Staunton much success, he won the match overall and became something of an unofficial World Champion.

1...e6 is also called the Franco-Indian Defence.

For explanation of theory tables, see theory table and for notation, see algebraic notation.

1. d4 e6

• Nunn's Chess Openings. 1999. John Nunn (Editor), Graham Burgess, John Emms, Joe Gallagher. ISBN 1-8574-4221-0.
• Modern Chess Openings: MCO-14. 1999. Nick de Firmian, Walter Korn. ISBN 0-8129-3084-3.
• Kasparov, Garry, & Keene, Raymond 1989 Batsford chess openings 2. ISBN 0-8050-3409-9.