I play c3. BUT ROSE YOUVE MADE 4 (FOUR) PAWN MOVES IN THE OPENING DON'T YOU NEED TO DEVELOP YOUR MINOR PIECES IN THE OPENING? The reason I move my c pawn to c3 is to:
- have b4 (a black square which black's good bishop is able to move to
- have a strong pawn link that black will have a hard time breaking
- gain space on my queen side

An alternate move is Nf3 (which I am considering playing next move) so I can take away more squares from black's black-squared bishop and develop a minor piece, however black's bishop has not been developed to the e7 square and if black (after this move) developed to the b4 square, a new diagonal would be available for her/him also pinning my pawn

3. ... f5?!

This move does nothing constructive for black, in fact it hurts black, really, really badly. I have labeled the pawn holes (these are squares that zero pawns are able to defend). Black has now made a pawn hole at e5 making white's pawn extremely good. Moving black's f pawn now makes castling king-side awful!

I would consider this move a blunder.

I play e5, but why? The reason I play e5 is to:
- gain more space and extremely limit the amount of space Black has on her/his king-side
- black can no longer play Nf6 safely
- black's black-squared bishop is now running low on viable squares
- white's white-squared bishop is better than black's white-squared bishop (both of black's bishop and king knight are in awful positions)

The position has now transposed into the french defence: advance variation.

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An alternate move that white could've played was to capture on d5 with the e4 pawn (which would be followed up by the recapture withh the e6 pawn) this would be the exchange variation of the french defence and that crap is boring!

Black plays d5 to have some control of the center and if white takes with the e4 pawn, black can safely recapture with the e6 pawn.

I play e4 to:
- solidify my control of the center (c5-d5-e5-f5 are now under my control)
- allow my white-squared bishop to move so i can eventually castle king-side

The game has transposed to a french defence (normal variation)

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I'd like to point out the move Nc3 could have been played (to develop a minor piece and still have some form of control in the center) but I believe it's very weak.

my opponent plays the horwitz defence. the plan for the horwitz defence is to support your d pawn (which will eventually be on d5) from white's e4 pawn (which I will play next move). As of right now this is which player can take control of the center.

I am playing as white in this game. I start with the queen's pawn opening in hopes that d5 is played so I can play c4 (for the queen's gambit, my absolute fav from 1. d4). Would I recommend e4 or d4 as white? I personally prefer d4, but if you're a beginner e4 should probably be played because of the documentation and the amount of games in the database there are on e4.