Is anything better for me than the Parham?

People sacrifice material for tempo, or for a strong positional advantage. Why would you want to avoid sacrifices when you get good compensation?

Study Tal's games and realize you can attack from a slow position. Tal played the Ruy Lopez and created good attacking chances.

The ruy lopez is incredibly passive, you cannot name one line where it is aggresive. Gms play the ruy lopez all the time and the game always winds up a draw. The_Gavinator, the parham is definately the way to go.

You know what, I will. I haven't heard anything better, so therefore this must be the best. I've asked for 12 pages for recommendations, all I hear is ruy lopez, or people ratting on Parham. So therefore, I'm just sticking with the Parham.

Tal and Kasparov played it, so it couldn't be passive. Have you even studied the Ruy? If not, you can't say that.

Every gm plays the ruy lopez, because it it very sound. At the gm-level, a slight mistake will get exploited and you will be crushed. The ruy is unlikely to have that happen to you, however it is a 2-sided sword because it is hard for you to crush your opponent, causing so many draws.

Yes, and i have played many closed games as black against it, it is very passive.

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1018625

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1140914

Then play something like the Scotch or the Italian, but not the Parham!

Small problem on first game, Ng5 hangs knight.

If black takes it, than White regains it with Qf3. Kasparov would have obviously seen it or he wouldn't have played it.

Here is a quick game I played, just to show you guys.

I am sorry, but black played horribly. You should show a better example...

Beautiful game The_Gavinator, you obviously could never have done this with an opening such as the ruy lopez. In this game you gained material very quickly while if you played another opening such as the ruy lopez the game would have been very long and drawn out, probably winding up a draw.

Actually, black played fairly well in that game.

That's what I was thinking whatupyodog. I agree black played badly, but going 20 moves deep in the ruy lopez would give me a more closed position, I won material in the first 10 moves with this.

you misquoted me dumbass

Opponents who blunder a piece in the opening vs the pharam will not know 20 moves of any opening.  They probably barely know 5 moves of any opening.

But yes, trappy openings will score faster and more frequently against beginner class opposition.  It just depends on what kind of chess you aspire to. 

@whatupyodog, how did you get such a good rating if you play such bad openings. 95% of chess.com thinks your 2 openings are horrible. They are just plain bad.