White's 2nd move challenges the center by attacking the e-pawn and also opening up the d-file for the rook and queen to attack, but at the cost of moving the queen early and allowing Black to develop with a tempo with 3...Nc6.

Jacques Mieses, Savielly 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 Alexander 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 re-evaluation of lines long thought to favor Black.

The nearly universal sequence of moves in the Center Game is 3.Qxd4 Nc6 (ECO code C22).

Postponing recapture of the queen pawn is a standard idea in the Scandinavian Defense (1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Nf6), but 3.Nf3 is less commonly played in the Center Game.

Although the move dates back to at least 1840, it has been championed more recently by the Hungarian correspondence player Dr. György Halasz.