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The Great White Debate

I used to play 1.e4 as white (when I was first learning)

 

After I discovered that learning opening theory is hard work I switched to 1.c4 and have been playing it ever since. Now, as I've been playing in tournaments I have discovered the need for a more aggressive opening repertoire as white. So, I am slowly going to built up a repertoire with the white pieces around 1.e4 and start practicing in my correspondence games on redhotpawn and here at chess.com

 

There's nothing really wrong with 1.c4....but I'm finding that its a little too easy to equalize against as black as it's not terribly aggressive by nature. I'll still be playing the english mostly but I sense the need to take the plunge and start learning some serious theory.

 

So far my repertoire is looking like this.

Against 1...e5

Scotch game (mieses variation) against 2..Nc6

I have no idea what to play against the petroff

Against 1...c5

I WANT to play the open but the theory is very scary so I might start with the grand prix attack.

 

Advanced variation against the caro kann.

I play the french as black so that will be easy, but I need something against the winawer.

Against the pirc/modern I'll play the 150 attack.

I have no clue what to do against the scandinavian. 

 

 


Comments

  • 5 years ago

    ericmittens

    I'm thinking I might play the moscow and rossollimo variations against the sicilians as they're very respectable and force black into your territory right away.
  • 5 years ago

    ericmittens

    Well, I won a copy of "starting out: the scotch game" at a tournament and the mieses variation looks like tons of fun. Plus Kasparov used it at the tail end of his career when he had to win and didn't feel like playing a Spanish.

    I think I'm going to have to knuckle down and play the open siciian since black seems to be able to equalize quite comfortably against eveything else. Which means I'll have to learn a line in:

    Najdorf

    Dragon

    Classical

    Sveshnikov

    These are the four crazy ones, all the other lines you can get by on a basic knowledge but these ones you have to know concrete variations or you're going to get slaughtered. Time to slowly start collecting books.... :( 


  • 5 years ago

    farbror

    Interesting! Scotch seems to get many votes and I have decided to give it a try. I have been playing Danish Gambit (1. e4 e5 2. d4) a lot but there is seldom very much punching power in it. The two reasons for playing Danish was:

     

    1. Many similarities to the Smith-Morra
    2. It was recomended by someone I trust

    It felt OK for a while to play Nizmo-Larsen (1. b3) in order to avoid too much theory but so far I am somewhat discouraged with all the transpositions into stuff where my opponents seem to be well versed.


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