I. This study reports the rapid reaction under mild conditions of internal or terminal alkynes with methyl (acetyl~ acetonato) (triphenylphosphine) nickel (1) in either aromatic or ether solvents. In all cases vinylnickel products 2 are formed by insertion of the alkyne into the nickel=methyl bond. These complexes may be converted into a variety of organic products (e.g. alkenes, esters, vinyl halides) by treatment with appropriate reagents. Unsymmetrical alkynes give selectively the one regioisomer with the sterically largest substituent next to the nickel atom. In order to investigate the stereochemistry of the initial insertion, a x-ray diffraction study of the reaction of 1 with diphenylacetylene was carried out. This showed that the vinylnickel complex formed by overall trans insertion was the product of the reaction. Furthermore, subsequent slow isomerization of this complex, to a mixture of it and the corresponding cis isomer, demonstrated that this trans addition product is the kinetic product of the reaction. In studies with other alkynes, the product of trans addition was not always exclusively (or even predominantly) formed, but the ratio of the stereoisomers formed kinetically was substantially different from the thermodynamic ratio. Isotope labeling, added phosphine, and other experiments have allowed us to conclude that …