Positionnal and dynamic white repertoire?

Hello,

So basically I struggle too much choosing an opening as white, up to the point where I hate playing white now and really enjoy playing as black.

As black, defenses I play are:

VS 1.e4

- Alekhine defense (1.e4 Nf6) heading into the main lines more or less, and answering 2.d3 or 2.Nc3 with 2....d5 to try and get dynamic unbalanced positions that are still not complete slaughters.

- Modern defense (1.e4 g6 2. ... Bg7 3. ... d6 when white plays among the standards of knight developing moves, center pawns or king's indian attack style of setups). More often than not was going into king's indian defense's type of games.

- Sicilian Sveshnikov variation if I get the chance to get there, (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cd 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e5)

Nowadays I end up playing almost exclusively the Alekhine though, as almost all the lines suit my style pretty well. I don't mind defending positions as long as I have some dynamic counterplay, I don't mind slow maneuvering games.

vs 1.d4

- Used to play all sort of benoni things, from ultraclosed ones to benko gambit.

- King's indian defense as it was already part of my repertoire against 1.e4

- Some weird stuff I won't get into as it's unsound, but I really love the tastes of the games, sharp and positionnal at the same time.

- Currently looking into the grunfeld defense, don't know yet if i'm going to get fully into it but I really like how dynamic the position that arise from it look.

However as white I struggle so much...

In the past I tried 1.Nf3, 1.f4 and 1.b3 with decent success, but I really hated playing some lines when I couldn't find how to create dynamic play.

Nowadays I'm going with 1.d4 as I more and more play the black side of 1.d4 and like these lines. However I'm really struggling finding something that suit my taste when the guy in front is playing for c6/d5/e6 setups, when we have a locked center and I have a hard time finding a way to get into dynamic games.

I just started to try out the catalan (as I tried to mirror to some extent Aronian's openings as white since I really like how he plays his openings and middlegames) but some games have the very same taste I hate, when I just can't find how to have dynamic things happening instead of just fighting "boringly" for space in a totally uninteresting game where my opponent seems to not try to give the game any soul.

I could try the english, however I'm really afraid of the 1.c4 c5 lines as extremely boring to play if the guy in front wants to keep the game boring (not sure if these fears are founded or not)

1.e4 is completely ruled out, as I don't play the french, aggressive sicilians, caro-kan, ruy lopez, and so on as black, and didn't play them in a really long time (and don't plan on), and I don't see a good reason to go into this and learn shitloads of theory for every line my opponent can throw at me. Tactical and theoretical games where you win when you know more opening moves than your opponent doesn't appeal to me at all. I'm not saying I couldn't have fun with a proper 1.e4 opening repertoire, just saying I won't invest enough time into all the common defenses to get to the point where I will have fun against stronger opponents who will be in their theoretical territory.

Things I think I should add to my post:

=> I'm not talking about opening results-wise. I'm not doing bad with 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.... e6 at all, I'm just not having fun at all since at my level, people play this to have boring games (let's just say I don't understand why these people play chess when they just aim for soul-less games).

=> I'm not interested in the "play the king's indian attack and attack the king every game" advice, don't throw it at me please, because I won't. I tried in the past, the games are quite interesting but playing for almost the same imbalances again and again and again removes so much variety off the game I just don't want anymore.

=> My problem is actually more "how can I create a dynamic yet still positionnally-driven game as white when my opponent just goes for passivity and waiting for a draw or a 100moves boring loss?" Maybe the problem doesn't lie in the opening choices but rather my lack of understanding of how to play for an advantage as white, or of the positions I'm going into.

=> I used to play 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.e4?! de 4.f3 style of gambits to try to get an imbalanced game, but I found that when black is playing carefully he gets a superior game pretty easily against me, in which I have trouble getting dynamic play.

If anyone has advices, I'd be grateful (even if it's just refering to some literature or getting better in some portion of the game).

Thanks for reading this way too long post.

Well, I think that this topic by GM BryanSmith would be just what you need or at least part of what you need:

My Bookshelf- "Dynamic Chess Strategy" by Mihai Suba
http://www.chess.com/article/view/my-bookshelf

Totally agree!  Plus, you can't force dynamic play.  It takes two to tango, and it takes two to play a chess game.  I laugh at the number of morons on this site that think that 1.e4 automatically leads to dynamic, tactical play and that 1.d4 automatically leads to slow, positional play.  There is no way possible that this can be any further from the truth.  It is such BS that it's laughable!  Ask said e4 player what he thinks of the "Dynamic Play" when his opponent plays the Petroff or Caro-Kann.  Ask said d4 player what he thinks of the slow play in the Modern Benoni or Leningrad Dutch.

Pick an opening (or openings), and study it.  Quit Whining!

I play multiple openings and which one I play each time depends on mood (listed in order of frequency):

White:  1.e4, 1.b4, 1.Nf3
Black vs e4:  1...e5, 1...g6, 1...c6
Black vs d4:  1...d5, 1...g6, 1...f5

why study openings - people are "out of book" by the 10th move anyway....

you are not looking for dynamic positional openings. If you were then you would be looking for the QG, the spanish and the open sicilian.

It apears you like for white to overextend. It is harder to get black to overextend but you can at least play provocitively with white.

It is hard to recomend a move if you are ruling out e4, d4, c4 and have already played the KIA.

In chess whites advantage is really of a fleeting nature, the only moves to make the advantage last for any amount of time have become the main lines.

I think the closest you can get to forcing dynamic play is 1 e4

surprise surprise its the most popular move,

as a response to thiller I think playing for d5 after the main line of the caro is fairly dynamic as well as the advance variation in general.

sure the petroff leads to dull eqaulity with best play. But recently there is thoughts of using Nc3 accepting doubled pawns and caslting queenside. This idea is still a draw but I wouldn't say its not dynamic

Where is whining in my post? Or maybe I don't understand correctly the meaning of "whining" since english isn't my native language, I think i'll just ignore these trolling posts.

[quote]It is hard to recomend a move if you are ruling out e4, d4, c4 and have already played the KIA.[/quote]

"why study openings - people are "out of book" by the 10th move anyway...."

That's the reason I want to stay out of 1.e4, I don't want to play textbook lines for 20 moves but to play chess after 8 moves or less. That's the reason I didn't give a specific line I have problem with but the gave the nature of the positions I have trouble handling. I don't want to study openings but study chess.

I'm not ruling out 1.d4, 1.c4, 1.Nf3, 1.f4, 1.b3, 1.g3...etc... I just explained what I was not satisfied with in my current opening handling. I just ruled out 1.e4 because I don't want to invest hours and hours just not to lose because of lacking opening theory, and it has nothing to do with thinking e4 is a bad move or anything like that. As for the king's indian attack, well I tried it in the past and the lack of variety is what keeps me off this opening. When I use 1.Nf3 or 1.g3 I still go for a KIA if I feel the position asks for it. I just don't want the KIA to be the setup I aim for.

Maybe I was not clear enough in my first text though. I explained what are the openings and types of positions I'm familiar and confident with. I explained why I wanted to work on my white side of the opening play and what I have trouble with. I just wanted to give as much insight as possible for people willing to help to have as many and accurate informations as possible.

But I suppose I'm just a moron because I'm whining and blaming my openings and not learning to play the game. As usual when you ask the internet, the people you see the most are the ones that help the less.

[quote]Plus, you can't force dynamic play.[/quote]

Maybe I didn't use the right word. By dynamic I mean imbalanced positions, or positions where plans for both sides aren't symmetrical, I don't mean tactical slaughters where pieces are hanging and people are trying to chop off the kings' heads as hard as they can (even if this kind of games are generally imbalanced in the first place). Sorry if I wasn't precise enough.

[quote]you are not looking for dynamic positional openings. If you were then you would be looking for the QG, the spanish and the open sicilian.[/quote]

My games go 1.d4 and if 1....d5 2.c4

How do I play the queen's gambit if this doesn't work? Also you seem to know better than me what I am looking for so maybe you could tell me instead of keeping that mystery.

I've been playing the English recently, and I really enjoy the variety of games it produces. I haven't found it dull at all.

1.a3 and then play as black reversed

Hello Doigteur Fou. First...your English is fine, and I think you were very clear about what you wanted. Second, I didn't see any whining at all in your post, frankly I'm surprised two people used that word in reference to your original post.

In terms of ideas for you, I find that there is plenty of room for unbalanced play after 1. d4. I play 1.d4 but avoid 2.c4. Between the Trompowski, The Torre Attack, things like the Barry or 150 attacks, and even some of the lines of the Colle-Zuckertort (a Colle where White fianchettoes his queen bishop), often the lines where Black sets up a e6/d5 or a c6/d5 centre are great fun. Black often gets cramped for space on the kingside, and if White plays dynamically he can hold the iniative for a long time on the kingside.

Sounds like the Trompowsky and Pseudo Trompowsky would suit you. 

Sounds like the OP is looking for practical chess where he gets a good fighting chance out of the opening but doesn't want to get into a battle of memory - the answer my friend is blowing in the wind =

1.f4 - "The Birds" and not the old Birds, the modern inturpitation. 

I ti is everything your two major posts requested - check out 

"Enter 1.f4 by Andrew Martin - you will be playing the Bird's in less than a day - and winning with it.

Thanks for your last inputs.

I don't have much knowledge around the 1.d4 d5 position (as I never play this as black and learnt almost all my opening sens from black's perspective) and am not aware of the other ways than 2.c4 to imbalance the game. I'll have a look into that trompowski I heard a lot of good of in the past without delving into it. The fact that I never heard of "the barry" nor "150 attacks" also calls for itself :)

About 1.f4 I played it in the past after the read and (partial) understanding of My System by Nimzowitsch and other stuff about so-called hypermodern chess, but never got into specific opening theory about that. As a result I was not aware there were more modern works around that opening, and am very curious to see what taste they get from there. Thanks for also providing a base source to start with.

I'll go on from what you gave me there, as there is already plenty of research and learning to do, but if anyone has more inputs or precisions feel free to add them; I'll look back in this thread regularly and it might help other people as well.

I am recently starting to think on adpting a c4 and Reti based reportoire. I got Benko reportoire from Chessexplained (IM Cristof Selecki) and I am happy with it, still learning it. So with white I do very much enjoy watching his blitz games in YouTube channel. I would suggest you have a look on their english and reti games with white (the opening is in the video title) and if you like the positions he get, go get his repertoire. You can find that one in other websites not in here. I am myself thinking on getting it as well if it was not because I have so little time that I feel studying a new opening reprtoire is too much for my chess time at this moment..

Hope this helped.

Cheers Bruddo

I forgot to mention that they are all interesting positional positions, with an unbalance to work on for an interesting not dull game.

For someone seeking help with choosing openings, I usually bring up Openings for Amateurs by Pete Tamburro (2014).
http://kenilworthian.blogspot.com/2014/05/review-of-pete-tamburros-openings-for.html
https://chessbookreviews.wordpress.com/tag/openings-for-amateurs/
I believe that it is possible to see a fair portion of the beginning of Tamburro's book by going to the Mongoose Press site.
https://www.mongoosepress.com/excerpts/OpeningsForAmateurs%20sample.pdf
Perhaps DoigteurFou would also want to look at Discovering Chess Openings by GM John Emms (2006).
https://web.archive.org/web/20140627114655/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen91.pdf
"Each player should choose an opening that attracts him. Some players are looking for a gambit as White, others for Black gambits. Many players that are starting out (or have bad memories) want to avoid mainstream systems, others want dynamic openings, and others want calm positional pathways. It’s all about personal taste and personal need.
For example, if you feel you’re poor at tactics you can choose a quiet positional opening (trying to hide from your weakness and just play chess), or seek more dynamic openings that engender lots of tactics and sacrifices (this might lead to more losses but, over time, will improve your tactical skills and make you stronger)." - IM Jeremy Silman (January 28, 2016)
https://www.chess.com/article/view/picking-the-correct-opening-repertoire
http://chess-teacher.com/best-chess-openings/
https://www.chess.com/blog/TigerLilov/build-your-opening-repertoire
https://www.chess.com/blog/CraiggoryC/how-to-build-an-opening-repertoire
https://www.chess.com/article/view/learning-an-opening-to-memorize-or-understand
https://www.chess.com/article/view/the-perfect-opening-for-the-lazy-student
https://www.chess.com/article/view/3-ways-to-learn-new-openings
https://www.chess.com/article/view/how-to-understand-openings
https://www.newinchess.com/Shop/Images/Pdfs/9035.pdf
https://web.archive.org/web/20140627110453/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen169.pdf
https://www.newinchess.com/Shop/Images/Pdfs/9029.pdf
https://www.newinchess.com/Shop/Images/Pdfs/7277.pdf
https://www.newinchess.com/Shop/Images/Pdfs/9033.pdf