What is your opening repertoire?

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Elubas

Pretty straightforward, what openings do you play and like?

jontsef

The following might be my downfall. Jack of all trades, master of none.

White:

1.e4, 1.d4, 1.Nf3, 1.Nc3. 1.a3 and 1.e3 in some cases.

With 1.e4

  • vs e5: Main line Ruy, Qe2 Ruy, King's Gambit, Scotch Opening, Scotch Gambit, Belgrade Gambit, Evans Gambit, Max Lange, Bishop's Opening.
  • vs Sicilian: Open Main lines (Bg5 Najdorf - Older lines, 0-0-0 vs dragon, Bxb5 or 7.Nd5 vs Svesh etc), 3.Bb5 lines, 4.Qxd4 lines.
  • vs French: Wing Gambit, Tarrash, 5.Qg5 vs Winawaer (without a3), Qh5 or Chatard vs Nf6.
  • vs Caro: Advanced, Main Lines, Fantasy, Panov.
  • vs Pirc: Bc4, Austrian, 150 , Delayed Spike.
  • vs Petroff: 3.Nc3 (and hope for 3...Nc6 and Belgrade Gambit) or 4.Nxf7 Cochrane Gambit.

With 1.d4 - Usually aggressive main lines.

  • vs QGD: Old lines trying for 0-0-0, or Exchange.
  • vs Slav: Usually old main line. Bg5 or c5 vs a6 Slav.
  • vs Semi Slav: Main Lines Bg5. Botvinnik and Bh4 vs Moscow. And Latvian Gambit (g4). Marshall vs triangle (or e3 and hope for Latvian)
  • vs KID: bayo (b4), h3, four pawns, Hungarian, Averbakh, fianchetto.
  • vs Nimzo: Kasparov's Nf3, sometimes f3, Qc2.
  • vs Grunfeld: Everything. Lately Nf3 and Rb1 line.

With 1.Nc3

  • vs d5: d4 and the Veresov.
  • vs e5: e4 and try to transpose to Belgrade.
  • vs c5: e4 and main line open sicilian.
  • Sometimes unique Nc3 lines.

With 1.Nf3 - Reti or Main line d4 stuff.

Black:

  • vs e4: Sicilian (Dragon and Classical), 1...e5 (Archangel, Marshall, Steiner, Gajewski, Keres, Zaitsev, Schlieman, Hebden, Chigorin), Modern and Pirc, Latvian, weird Frenches, Latvian.
  • vs d4: KID, Tango, Chigorin, Slav, Semi Slav, Dutch, Modern, Benoni, English defense, Vulture.
jontsef

Why am I the only one? Let's go people :)

Elubas

That's a REALLY huge repertorie! Seriously. I'll share mine.

In fact as white I have really narrowed it up, when before I was playing a decent amount of things. I used to play birds and KIA on rare occasions, but have abandoned them. Basically I prefer to have good chances of an advantage so I can impose my will on an opponent. I also used to play e4 almost as often as d4, but I have completely abandoned e4 for serious play, maybe once in a while in a correspondence game, but mostly just d4. I also tried the english opening, but d4 seems to give me the best play. So against ...d5 I always play the QG and against 2...e6 I either play the exchange or Bg5 line. Against the slav I either go into the meran or anti meran which involves playing Qc2 instead of Bd3, often with b3 to follow, guarding the pawn to avoid losing tempo with my bishop. On 2...dxc4 I either play the quiet Nf3 line or e4 right away if I think my opponent doesn't know the opening very well.

Against the KID I either play the classical main line or the fianchetto (good against those who only want a k side attack). In fact I used to try all the variations like the 4 pawns (too sharp for me), and samisch (too awkward for me). Against the nimzo I like the classical Qc2 line. I don't know too much theory against the dutch, but I just do a fianchetto setup. It's more important in that opening to know the plans I think. Against the grunfeld I'm trying the russian but have usually played the exchange.

Versus e4 I used to play the french almost exclusively, but have now found others I've liked: 1...c6 (solid), and 1...c5 with either the Kan or sveshnikov if white chooses the open. But not 1...e5! I would then have to prepare for any white pet line in that opening, not to mention the ruy lopez.

Against 1 d4 I usually play ...Nf6 though I'm open to QGD or slav lines on occasion. I mostly played the KID but have now been able to appreciate the subtleties of the Nimzo indian and Queen's indian.

TheSteadyHand

i have two favorite opens as black and white

 

for white my truely favorite and probably over all strongest is the english with a quick kingside fianchetto second would have to be the ruy lopez

 

for black i used to play d5 no matter what white played but now i use Nf6 no matter what however as a back up i use the french defence

 

secret opens for white kings gambit and for black the modern defence often with twin fianchettos

 

those are the main opens i use however i try to mix it up testing out all the opens a little bit every week, lately the two ive been studying the most, mainly because i know they are quite common at high level chess are the queens gambit and the sicilian studying from both sides

 

for fun i play the birds open and the caro-kann but i hardly ever use them effectively so i stay away from them when playing for real

Diabeditor

WHITE:

1. Nf3 and 1. f4 are my common choices. With 1. Nf3, I am still learning the ins and outs of the Reti. More often than not I play the Tennison Gambit (1. Nf3 d5 2. e4)

BLACK:

Leningrad Dutch, Albin Counter Gambit and Blumenfeld Gambit vs. 1. d4

Latvian Gambit and Alekhine's Defense vs. 1. e4

Since I used to play a lot of postal chess in my younger days, I always explored new openings, just to give them a try. So I can usually fake my way through any opening, and know the basics of anything found in MCO.