Van't Kruijs Opening [E3F5]

The Van't Kruijs Opening is not popular. According to ChessBase, it ranks eleventh in popularity out of the twenty possible first moves. It releases the king's bishop, and makes a modest claim in the centre, but the move is somewhat passive compared to much more common King's Pawn Game (1. e4). The queen's bishop's development is somewhat obstructed by the pawn on e3, and White usually wants to take more than a modest stake of the centre.