So I've got a bit of a dilemma.  I have two major chess tournaments coming up, one next week and another in June.  My opening for white is 1.b4 and has been for almost 2 years.  But, I'm getting a little tired of playing it.  It's gotten a bit dull, especially since I most commonly see the same typical moves and setups against it over and over.  I also recently checked my statistics for how I do with it on fics and on my database, and realized I score around 50% with it, but that I actually score better with black.  

This was a bit surprising to me, I had already planned to start learning 1.e4 after these two tournaments but lately I've been feeling like maybe trying it out at the tournaments themselves.  But that's not a lot of time to prepare to play the most theoretical of all the first moves.  Should I stick it out with what I know, or take a chance on 1.e4? 

I'm playing in the B section of both tournaments, and they are both rather large tournaments so there is also a rather hefty investment of money involved.  And, I'd like to perform to the best of my abilities at both of them. 

Bottom line...what do you think?  1.b4 or 1.e4?

yeah, 1.b4 tends to lead to equality a lot.. I think thats not too shabby, well. . it is , but not as bad as the second problem- minimal growth due to seeing the same old positions (as you mentioned)

I used to play 1.f4 but took it too far, making up my own "system" I saw the same stuff, scored even, and didnt learn.

sure, not knowing lines is bad, but bordom can kill you as well in a tournament. I say switch to 1.e4, but not all at once.

learn a few easier yet decent sidelines and then slowly peel them away when youre confortable in the main lines. example- against ...e5 learn the bishops opening for now quick, and in the future spend a few weekends on the Lopez until youre comfortable and then switch it in.  against the sicilian the queenside fianchetto (forget the real name for it all the time) is real good and underrated.. N. Short likes it. the mainline sicilians will take forever to learn so that might be a good idea.

anyways this is what I did. still learning, still having fun with 1.e4 :)

thats what great about 1.e4, is you get to mix and match and tweak, whereas in static openings its usually "A or B" sometimes even "A or A" :/

Do you think you can win more than 50% of your games with e4 (or anything other than b4)? 

From personal experience, don't experiment in a rated/$ tournament because everything is cut-throat and there is very little room to "wing-it".  If you play e4, you will probably play the Ruy Lopez, Sicilian, French, or Caro Kan; all can go 15 moves easy into book variations.

In MHO, stick with what you know and experiment after the tournament.

If you were switching to 1 e4 from 1 d4 or the English or Reti, or perhaps even Bird's Opening, I would agree completely with Tony and the Admiral, that a gradual switch would be best.

In your case, though, you are playing one of the few first moves which doesn't offer White a decent chance of a "normal" advantage (roughly speaking, increasing his starting edge of half a tempo to about a full tempo ahead - enough to encourage White but not enough to discourage Black).  As they might say in a horror movie:  "The calls are coming from inside the house - get out of there NOW!"

You only hurt yourself with this stuff.  Go all in on 1 e4 or another main line opening.  The sooner you start playing the lines, the sooner you will learn them, and you aren't leaving anything worthwhile behind you.

At that level, players will know the first 10 or so book moves for every major variation an e4 player can throw at them, and will know how to exploit missteps to get an advantage out of the opening.

There'll still be a game of chess to be played, but you're likely to start the middlegame behind.

With b4, you'll probably start the middlegame on more or less equal footing.

All in all, I'd say you're likely to keep scoring around 50% this tournament as a b4 guy, and would probably score worse with a move to e4.  If maximizing your results is the goal, stick with b4 and then move to e4 after.

If you feel you want to start making the shift, try to keep it as simple as possible.

Prep something against e5...I'd recommend either the KG if you're an attacking guy (cuts way down on opponent's options), or the Italian if you play more positionally, with d3 and c3.  That opening gives you few ways to go wrong early, and gets out of book fast all the time, even at the GM level.  Turns into a slow buildup on either side, at white's discretion most of the time.

Against everything else, just play the KIA or some such.  It's not optimal, but it'll get you into a middlegame with chances.  Or try to set your pieces up in an English attack/150 attack as often as possible, push the hell out of your h pawn, and hope for the best.

Or, if you were so inclined, and weren't hell-bent on e4, you could start picking up d4.

You could learn enough ideas to play the Colle and the Trompowsky in a weekend.  Neither is exactly going to feature at the world championship in the near future, but both get played up to the 2600's occasionally.  Roll out the Tromp against Nf6, and the Colle against everything else.

When it's time to expand the repertoire, you can keep both (the Tromp to rule out Indians, and the Colle as an anti-Nimzo weapon for guys who want to go 1.d4 e6) and pick up the Queen's gambit as time permits.

At the sub-2000 leagues where tactics decides everything,  it is more important that you play the positions that you are more comfortable with ... even better if those are the ones where your opponent isn't.

 I can remember the time I first faced 1.b4 as black OTB and my opponent really had me burning the clock to find solid moves.   He moved fast and he knew where the tactical opportunities were ... and I ended up falling for a shot.

As the previous posts indicated, do not experiment at big tournaments...play chess in your backyard and drag your opponents kicking and screaming into it.

if you want to do well in these tournements, there is no choice - you must play what you know, hence 1.b4.

i agree maybe sticking with what you know is better for the short term, but i also like the idea of mixing it up in the future.

I'm with those who say stick to what you know in the big tournaments. But start playing the new stuff in non-tournament games as soon as possible to learn it. 1. e4 just isn't the sort of thing you can improvise your way through at class B level - too many opponents will be booked up 10+ moves deep in Sicilian theory.

I shifted away from e4 because of how theoretical and open ended it was. I never new it well to begin with, so that was an easy enough choice. I haven't played tournament wise in a very long time but I like the 1.c4 english variations alot.

I'd stick with what you know.

Stick to what you know till the tournaments are over, and then switch to 1.e4 ASAP right after. This should give you time to cut out a decent repertoire for yourself before the next tournament. There is a good chance you won't be totally comfortable with 1.e4 for a long time, depending on the lines you play, as black has so many responses. It may hurt your results at first, but in the long run you will be glad you left 1.b4 behind, trust me. Playing principled openings that start with 1.d4 or 1.e4 will do a lot for your chess development.

go for e4, the bloody game s'posed to be fun if you is bored with the repetetive nature of your games you needs to jump in the deep end - good luck anyways !

fun is highest when you win ;)

I would say go with a more common move. The problem with weird moves like b4 is that the positions aren't very rich; there are (probably) not many key positions to learn, so it gets dull, and, from the prespective of the other players preparing for you, they only need to know how to deal with a few things that happen after 1 b4, because it's sort of a one trick pony. Against 1 e4 and d4, so many openings branch off of them, so there's many more opportunities to fight for an opening advantage and keep opponents on their toes.

Don't be worried about theory too much though. Even at b level, opening theory is not terribly important, though it's not meaningless either. Looking at certain pawn structures in certain openings and figuring out the plans for both sides sure can be fun though.

it might take a while for you to get used to 1. e4...right now I actually think your results might be even worse with 1 e4 than 1 b4. Maybe you should try 1. b3...thats a little more sound than 1. b4 and you may get some similar sorts of themes you are familiar with. Try 1. e4 in more casual games for a while until you get used to it.

Just an idea - if you score over fifty percent with Black, what if you try 1.a3? It sounds silly, but it's like playing Black with the slight advantage of the a-pawn preventing certain openings. Some notable openings it stops are the Ruy Lopez and Queen's Gambit (taking the pawn and playing b5 should let you keep the pawn safely). If you're a Sicilian guy, you can play for example the Kan with an extra move, as you would often be playing a6 with Black anyway.

Well, if you play B section you are certainly a stronger player than I am.  But in general I think a major tournament is not the place to try to change your repertoire.  B4 certainly has some surprise value, and you know it well.  In theory, well, yes it has problems, but it is often said that everything is playable at club level.  Over time you do want to develop e4 (if that is what appeals to you) but going into this level of play you are going to face players booked to the teeth in their pet systems.  Play your 1b4 in the tournament and then book up slowly on your new systems.

Thanks everyone.  I think I'll play 1.b4 at the tournament this weekend.  As for the other one in mid June....we'll see.