I have been playing 1.e4 Nc6 recently because it seems to lead to weird positions. There are a lot less of them than with 1...Nf6. Unfortunately I keep running into 1.e4 Nc6 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 d5 4.exd5 which is a French exchange. I have no interest in that at all really...

But I'm not really sure about any other moves. 2...Nf6 is probably ok but the amount of thoery involved defeats the purpose of me even using it... I'm not really sure what to play. Frankly I don't enjoy any defences to 1.e4 at all anymore. I don't really enjoy chess much anymore... My rationale is not good I know but I seem to just not like anything about it anymore. For example:

1.e4 e6 = exchange

1.e4 c6 = exchange

1.e4 Nf6 = too cramped and complicated to really use well

1.e4 c5 = you will only play anti lines and have piss poor knowlege of the main positions

1.e4 b6 = I don't understand enough about chess to be able to use this well

1.e4 d6 = I have never played one Austrian attack in my entire life. Most games end up with Bd3 and d5 and I don't understand those positions

1.e4 g6 = Again I'm not really proficient enough to allow White this much space

1.e4 e5 = Boring gambits where after the attack fails White just trades everything or you lose.

1.e4 d5 = Bb5+. You know what i mean...

1.e4 = sicilian

1.d4 = nimzo, bogo, kid over and over again...

I just refuted chess with my patzerness.

As Black I try the Benoni but that never happens...

So I started screwing around with 1.Nf3 but a lot of those positions are way too complicated anyway. It seems that the things I should be playing bore me and the things I shouldn't play are exciting but too complicated.

My rating is pretty crappy now too. I don't really pay attention to my games anymore and I'm making obvious blunders rather frequently. I could play better but I almost don't even care to try anymore. I'm not really sure what to do. I could read one of those middlegame books and learn some things but it seems more like a chore than something I would enjoy doing. You are supposed to study those things rather than just read them...

Should I just quit? I've been thinkin about it for a while now. Nothing in chess really seems new to me anymore. And although it is obvious that I haven't even begun to learn any dificult concepts, the ones I know now don't seem very interesting anymore.

Solution 1:

Have you ever tryed Go? that's a really great game (i dare to say that it's even more beutiful than chess in my view) and opening theory in not so important (there are theoretical lines, but the "opening" phase works differently and so openings are not really fixed, it's hard to explain in a few words). Moreover a draw is not a possible result in an even game. As an additional plus you can boast with your chess playing friends that "your" game is way more ancient and that a 9-dan Go professional is (for the moment) still capable of slaughtering Go computers. This if you are really tired of playing chess 

Solution 2: Play bongcloud chess. A world of new openings and concepts is awaiting you. and you can enter this world without learning the rules of a new game. The problem is that most people might call you insane, and the annoiyng part is that they will probably be right. 

Solution 3: Seriously, this makes no sense. It's impossible that there's not a single opening which suits your taste. You have to drop your preconceptions. What's the problem with the exchange french? do you really believe that it can't lead to an interesting game?Most of the time it does.  And is facing a c3 sicilian, leading to rather open and interesting play, such a problem? Facing the nimzo-indian, maybe the single most variegated and interesting defence in the whole game, where both players can choose between ferocious/quiet/closed/open/whatever lines, is something which scares you away from chess? Or maybe you just read somewhere that the exchange is drawish (yes, maybe for 2500+ players) and you have accepted this as an ultimate truth, so that when the opponent plays the exchange you are unable to try one of the several ways to play for an interesting position because you are too convinced that no matter what the game will be a draw?

try chess 960 instead of regular chess - as a possible stimulant to your thinking processes.

You don't have an openings problem, you're just sick of chess. Take a break.

It seems that the things I should be playing bore me and the things I shouldn't play are exciting but too complicated.

Who said you shouldn't play the exciting stuff ? Do play it ! It's exciting !

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as your friend anthony, i gotta agree with this guy

Thanks for the replies. It's not that I hate the exchange. Ok I actually do hate it... Basically though I don't want to waste time with openings that are going to be sideteped in two moves. I don't study any theory and getting random positions I don't know is annoying. I would never for example play something like the Marshall gambit since I would have to expect my opponent to go 9 moves into that theory without playing one of the numerous deviations. At my level that's just not smart for either side. Even GMs talk about all of the exchange Slavs they get from weaker players. Is it that offensive? No. But one doesn't play the Slav with the intention of reaching the exchange.

The sicilian is similar. I'm sure there are plenty of interesting replies for all 100 anti lines but I would at best only be subpar with each of them compared to my opponent that has put much time and effort into learning their one line. I'm also sure nizmos are great but I'm not interested in playing 5 games in a row with it either. Using the move 1.c4 I have managed to avoid many a Nimzo player with a few tricks even if the bishop makes it to b4.

Boringness with 1...e5 is not as bad as I described but most of my games are 3...f5 Ruy Lopezes where White still manages to trade off everything, Italian games that end up the exact same way or some gambit where I forget a move and end up in trouble. Here is a recent game where I didn't blunder but...

 

That wasn't really much fun at all. I spent the opening defending against attacks, the attack failed and the game pretty much died until he messed up. And if I had played the natural Qd8 I would have just lost. Luckily I remembered not to do that this time.

may i ask, why do you play chess? what do you want to get out of it? please dont take that the wrong way, it just might help if we know what you enjoy about the game so we can help you find what it is you're looking for...

and as for the benoni as black, if you fancy just playing some games of that and seeing how that goes i'll me more than happy to help out :)

You can't blame chess if you don't fight to make a game interesting(of course sometimes it happens to everyone)! 5...Nxe4 as you played is indeed a very solid move and ofter considered safe but boring, but there might have been some fireworks anyway with more fighting moves.

An early alternative was 5...Bc5 which almost invariably leads to a ferociously sharp fight. 

8...Qa5 in particular if you want to play for a win as White can basically force a draw after 8...Qh5

4...Bc5 is another option to try to retain some life in the position.

Thanks for all the analysis but that's the problem. After only eight moves in the opening I'm already toast and all I was doing was developing pieces! That's 1...e5 in a nutshell and it's not that much fun imo. The only reason I play it is because it doesn't give up any space. But if the only way I'm not going to get roflstomped is to memorize all that theory then I won't even bother.

When I played Alekhine's defence I didn't know any theory. Zero; Basically I watched a bunch of games and was able to use it well enough. The transposition after 1.e4 Nf6 2.Nc3 e5 was fine since those positons you don't really need theory to play either. Most of them just lead to certain pawn structures and you can figure out where the pieces go by watching games. The problem was that the opening was way too cramped and it's hard to find good squares for the pieces.

Semi-open games always seemed to be the best way to go for certain pawn structures but I don't handle cramped positions well at all. I'm not sure what to do about the whole thing.

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I liked chess because of all the intersting positions I got into. Now it seems like I'm playing the same game over and over again and it's really getting old.

Maybe you're just not a very good player and you have reached your maximum capacity?

I'm 22...

It doesn't matter how old you are, it sounds like you have hit a plateau and are not interested in working to get up another notch. All this boo-hooing about the exchange var. etc. really isn't convincing. I love it when someone thinks the exchange is going to stump my French. I usually win, because they are planning to draw. Psychological considerations add another dimension to the game.

@pfren I would have to disagree

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Obviously the exchange isn't dangerous but if I'm not having fun with it then I won't play it. I just want an opening that doesn't require me to stay up all night memorizing stuff.

The other problem is that if 70% of the time I'm getting the same exact positons in my openings I'm not going to be interested. Some people like to play the same position a bunch of times until they find some novelty. I don't. If I play the same position too many times then I just get bored. So I want nothing to do with the French if 70% of my games lead to the exact same position over and over again.