e4 just is not cutting it for me, black has too many replies for me to study, eg modern, owens, sicilian, caro-kann, centercounter,pirc, e5,french, alekhine

where as with d4 i can go with a catalan like system against anything black throws at me

You can do a KIA against almost anything black throws at you as well.

C4 only has three responses really... reversed sicillian (1. c4 e5) symmetrical (1. c4 c5) and Anglo-Dutch (1. c4 f5).

lol

1...Nf6	31,087	40.9% 34.4% 24.7%
1...e5	19,194	37.8% 32.5% 29.7%
1...e6	13,186	37.4% 38.8% 23.8%
1...c5	11,186	35.7% 41.5% 22.8%
1...g6	9,950	35.8% 34.3% 29.9%
1...c6	6,387	38.9% 39.2% 21.9%
1...f5	3,217	41.7% 30.4% 27.8%
1...b6	1,288	35.9% 31.1% 33%
1...d6	670	41.2% 26.7% 32.1%
1...Nc6	334	43.7% 26% 30.2%

You just have to study many a master has great attack with e4 Just need to know it it's important just in case you run into a GM I did Some master and gues what he played r4 good luck

Possible, sure, but it hardly ever happens. I'd say (1. c4 e5) and (1. c4 c5) makes up about 95% of the games. Sure, occasionaly you get weird crap like (1. c4 g6) or Indian defense like you mention, but its pretty uncommon.

Looking at game explorer, you're clearly wrong.

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On a master level, I'm sure you see a lot more Indians. I was assuming the OP was a patzer like me, and was speaking of my experience playing other patzers.

Sorry!

It has nothing to do with master level play.

1.c4...Nf6

2.d4

and we have the classic position from where anything can play out - QGD, Benoni/Benko, Budapest, KID, you name it.

don't join the dark side!

Only masters tend to play 2.d4 since they're that good and they can memorise all that stuff. The average English player will never play 2.d4 or he'd just play it on move one. It's just not economical to play all that English theory and 1.d4 theory as well. There are exceptions though and that depends on who is playing White. I do get 1...Nf6 a lot more than 1...e5 since most people play the KID against 1.d4.

1.e4 is fine though... The only reason I stopped playing it was because I didn't have time to learn open sicilian stuff. That's really the only reason and those anti-sicilians suck compared to the open stuff. You get a good attack every game without giving up a pawn or some other crap lol and it's better for your chess anyway to learn those pawn structures. There's just a lot of em...

1.e4 e5 2.Whatever... After 2.f4 most Black players will punk out and not even take it or play d6 lol. When they do take it the games are always crazy fun.

1.e4 e6/c6 2.c4 and you get an iso pawn and attack them OR they get scared and you get to play d4 as well lol. If you don't like 1.e4 e6 2.c4 then 2.d4 d5 3.e5 is easier.

1.e4 Nf6 is kinda tricky but you can't really go wrong just winging it... I play it myself and it's hard for White to screw up unless he does something crazy. 1.e4 Nf6 2.e5 (2.Nc3 is ok if you play Vienna.) Nd5 (everything else sucks) 3.d4 d6 4.Nf3 and there ya go. The trick is that 4...de leads to caro-kann positions and 4...Bg4 could just take some looking to be ready for.

Vs Pirc and Modern just develop both knights and play h3 after Black castles to prevent Bg4. Play a4 when Black gets funny with a6/c6 blah, blah....

1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 and you just pawn storm the king. Watch some Spassky games.

1.e4 Nc6 2.Nf3/2.Nc3 You could play 2.d4 but the knight move pretty much forces them to either go classical or take more risks just to keep the game weird which should make things a little easier.

1.e4 f5 2.exf5 rejoice and keep the game as boring as possible so that they get angry and blunder some more.

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 Simple solution is to play Bb5 against 2...d6 and 2...Nc6 and learn the theory against 2...e6 (Scheveningen, Taimanov etc.) that way at least you don't have to be worrying about Kalashnikov's and Dragonses and Najdorf's 

Everyone under 1650 seems to always know exactly what to play when.  Not sure why they are not 2000+ then... 

This is such a common lament of the novice:

People are beating (or not losing against) my move 1 choice. I'll change systems!

Pretty soon, people will be stalling you with that...then the obvious thing is to change openings, finesse the move orders of which piece or pawn goes first...then, of course, they start catching on again... At this point, it is either change again--often back to the original system (in which the player is rusty and really out of his element, which will lead to more disappointment) or quit chess (for now) and take up some other pastime...and on and on it goes.

The problem isn't your opening choice. It's your lack of skill in positions where your opponent doesn't make a blunder right off. Possibly a by-product of too much bullet chess, not enough practice, study whatever. It will not be solved by changing openings or opening systems.

There's obviously nothing wrong with 1.e4 regardless of your results with it. On the other hand, 1.d4 is probably way less popular below Master level so if you start to learn some QP Openings they could work well for you. I doubt if the Catalan will because it's a subtle, positional opening unsuited for most players below 2200 USCF (ie Masters). 

If you really want to learn openings or anything else about chess, start playing some turn-based games and/or live games with tnmt level TLs. Nuff said!

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 Why don't you tell us why we're not 2000+ then...?

What's your secret, bring a die to the board and if you roll a six you play an open sicilian etc. ?

...and having to learn what to do against the Owen's Defense!? Is that REALLY such a problem?

LOL

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 I am over 2000 FIDE  :)

I never play anything other than 1.e4 as white and 1... Nc6 as black.

My secret: Choose something, learn it and stick with it so that you get to know all sorts of positions and ways people play against it.  Also, study some endgames and some tactics.  Sure 2000 FIDE may not be great, but it is better than most and I don't do a lot of study - I just stick to something - and don't whine if I lose  :)

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 Excellent post.  I agree 100%.  Your FIRST move is not losing you the game!