Chess Openings

Grob??

I decided to get to know well only two openings, rather than learning a lot of different ones. Currently I use Scotch with white and Scandinavian with black. But I have to adapt them depending on what my opponent plays. After the first 2/3 "book" moves, I like to experiment, otherwise it just gets boring. I would rather understand why a certain opening is better and how to find the best move, rather than memorizing moves. Am I the only one?

So far I have:

1. Control the middle 4 squares (with your pawns if possible?), but do not sacrifice pieces to do so.

2. Develop your pieces (but still defend them)

... and stronger pieces (Queen and rooks) after the other pieces? Is this is an actual principle? But it looks like what most openings do.

3. Castle as soon as possible.

4. If you want a "sharper" (more aggressive?) game, (as I do, since I find the end game boring), castle on the opposite side from your opponent.

Am I missing some?

@Chessics1211, 1. d4 .. 2. e4 and let the fun begin!

hmmmm

Vs I started with king's pawn e5 and love the scraps you can get into but have been learning and playing c6 d5 caro kann which is super solid.
Vs d5, queens gambit declined currently which I'm happy with, tried the slav prior which some players recommend to improvers for the better light squared bishop, but I was finding my queen's knight becomes a problem piece in return.

yes play the grob

@PaulSmart87 Can you explain the idea behind the Caro Kann to me? I know GothamChess also likes it, but it seems to me like you just give the middle squares to your opponent? Maybe I am missing something?

Stonewall for White works pretty well and has some nice winning variations. For black daily chess games I recommend the hippo bc your opponent first doesnt know what to do and then you can break through and win.

@Chavoux The Caro- Kann is a bit of a weird one. I would say the exchange leads to a more open game battling for the centre which makes the game far more enjoyable and less stressful. In case you want to know about the Advanced Variation, you would want to create a pawn chain for a more closed position (which can be a bit hard). If you lose the centre you probably will get it back with gentle/aggressive development. I’ve left some examples down below.

Or you could follow this for the exchange:

I love the caro-kann, and it has scored me many wins against 1. e4.

Some weapons you can try against the "Trappy" openings.

@TheLearnerofGames, to me it looks like in the 1st 2 examples white basically gives the centre to black when it takes the pawn (dxc5). The last one looks more even to me... and I would long castle if I was white, since it is almost certain that black would castle king side. But would I want to exchange my bishop for a knight? Maybe worthwhile for the attack options queen side.

InternaCionalBalisticMissil gambit

I forgot to add that most people would actually play those line going into the game. The Caro-Kann has a kind of trappy game. For the 2nd one black would be clearly winning in terms of development and has a very strong pawn chain. If there is any normal bishop move except Be3 there would be an amazing fork with Qb6. This is a critical move as you will win a pawn guaranteed. However, the first one is more of an aggressive gambit suggested by GothamChess himself which target the isolated pawn on f5. This is why it is great for the beginner to intermediate level!

I like the Queen's Gambit: Accelerated Manhattan.

why study all this when u can play the grob fr

Well, I hate the grob positions. Soo i don't play them.

Instead of dxc5 you could actually go c3 or Nf3 as white to play passively.