Chess Openings

You can also prevent the f4 variation by this, which helps black in surviving even if white knows theory.

the benoni is a risky choice man

you can avoid f4 but theres pretty much no positions where white doesnt have a strong advantage and ive noticed that whites plans are very easy to identify

I believe the advantage is mainly the engine overestimating the space disadvantage, of course it’s not entirely sound in that sense but it normally goes to pretty normal values, bordering equality, depending on the variation. It’s good to play for an imbalanced position to try to win as black.

ig if youre an absolute dawg then sure but cant you get winning chances with a normal opening? were not grandmasters so we do not need to take such risks to create chances with black

even in a symmetrical position you’d need to create some sort of imbalance to try to win, just waiting for someone to make a mistake with 0 sense of strategy is boring and not as effective most of the time, since I’m as likely to make a mistake as they are.

The dynamics make it a really fun position to play like the open e file and the diagonal and all that and also the engine evaluates it at 0.6 which is still pretty playable

This is so far from my opening knowledge (as an e4 player with white and a d5 player against d4). I'm not going to comment on the opening itself but just to say that you really shouldn't discount an opening too easily.

The line shared by @ragibites2013 scores 49% black to 47% white between 1200 and 2000 elo on this site (From 198k games!). A follow up of a6 for black and this changes to 51%/44%!

Go to 2200+ and this drops to 44%/49% from 34k games. Although the same a6 sideline scores 50%/44%.

To find a losing winrate for this a6 line I had to go for less than 400 elo (8 games) and above 3000 (7 games). Neither of which is enough of a sample size to say with confidence that it doesn't work.

Seems quite a reasonable line to go into, especially if you have understanding and experience within it. With a quick check (although I only checked 1200-2000 range) this is all of White's most common moves so this would be very much a mainline position so you would get some decent practice by playing this line.

Obviously I started my chess career with 1. e4, but the Italian Game was the first opening that helped me learn some opening theory. Nowadays I play only a few openings, but I know a whole bunch:

King's Pawn Opening (King's Knight Variation, Wayward Queen Attack, The Bongcloud, The Double Bongcloud, Borg Defense)

Italian Game

Giuoco Piano (Main Line, Center Attack)

Modern Defense (with 1. e4, Main Line, Monkey's Bum)

Pirc Defense (Modern Defense, Geller System)

Bishop's Opening

French Defense (Normal Variation, Knight Variation, Queen's Knight Variation, La Bourdonnais Variation, Mediterranean Defense, King's Indian Attack)

Philidor Defense

Sodium Attack

Grob Opening (Double Grob Variation, Alessi Gambit, Coca-Cola Gambit)

Barnes Opening

Van't Krujis Opening

Queen's Pawn Opening (Accelerated London System. Zukertort Variation, Chigorin Variation, Symmetrical Variation, Zuketort Chigorin Variation)

London System

Vienna Game (Frankenstein-Dracula Variation)

Bird's Opening

Larson's Opening

Sicilian Defense (Open, Closed, Najdorf Variation, Dragon Variation, Alapin Variation, Smith-Morra Gambit)

Center Game

Scotch Game

English Opening

Englund Gambit

Hippopotamus Opening

Two Knights Defense

Three Knights Opening

Four Knights Game (Italian Variation)

Halloween Gambit

Evans Gambit

Spanish Opening (Tricky Systems)

Crab Opening

Reti Opening (Tennison Gambit, Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Gambit)

Jerome Gambit

Vienna Gambit (Toilet Gambit)

Caro-Kann Defense (Hillbilly Attack)