Van't Kruijs Opening

The most modest first move on the board. 1.e3 claims one square, commits to nothing, and politely asks Black to reveal a plan first.

Most first moves make a claim: on the center, on a diagonal, on a file. 1.e3 makes almost none. It opens the door for the king's bishop. It keeps every pawn structure available. It waits. Depending on what Black does, White can steer toward a Colle or Stonewall setup with d4 and Bd3, a Queen's Gambit a move later with d4 and c4, or a reversed French where Black has been talked into playing e5. The move is named for Maarten van 't Kruijs, a 19th-century Dutch player. It has been the connoisseur's shrug ever since.

The catch is that modesty has a price. The pawn on e3 blocks the c1-bishop's natural diagonal. By declining to fight for the center immediately, White hands back the small head start that moving first provides. Black can simply take the space on offer with ...e5 or ...d5 and develop naturally. There is no early way to punish that. Where 1.d4 and 1.e4 pose problems, 1.e3 poses a question at most.

So who plays it? People who hate theory, people who love transpositions, and people who want the game decided in the middlegame by whoever understands their structure better. That is a perfectly honorable way to play chess. But the club statistics are blunt about what the move itself achieves. It's a fresh start with the advantage of the first move already spent.