1400 player, need a good opening to combat e4

there are other first moves of course, but these 5 scale well with playing strength, and so i will stick to these. maybe 1..d5 doesn't scale as good as the other 4, but that's a gm problem, not for mere plebeians.

Amazing, thank you!

What do you consider as "your territory"?

That is a tough question. I guess what I mean by that is It would be nice to have an opening as black where I can somewhat predict what is going to happen. A structured opening for black where I don’t just develop my pieces but I can also predict where the game might be heading based on knowledge of the variations and lines. The French for instance has the advance or the exchange, or quite a few variations, although it’s doubtful most people in my rating would know these. I don’t much like the French though because it is difficult to play if it goes into the advanced, hard to make progress because it is so closed. A friend is recommending the caro kann so I think I would be willing to spend time learning this.

hi

@zgoeken I strongly recommend the french defense as an opening that would help you improve and learn complex and closed positions where you have to be dynamic and play actively...

If you'd like to learn it GInger GM's series is a really good start

@King5smith I agree with you but the OP is a 1400 not a 1200, tbf he should start playing complex position, not just simple anti-complex stuff like the caro or e5

If you know key ideas and have some experience in playing certain positions you can more or less predict the direction of the game in ANY opening!

For instance, french. You're saying it's hard to play french. Do you think it's because of opening or it's because you simply don't know how to play it? As I know, Ian Nepomniachtchi, top4 in the world, playing french and quite happy with that!

If you like to play solid positions, then Caro is a good idea. Also you can get solid positions out of Sicilian Kan/Paulsen variation.

"just simple anti-complex stuff like caro or e5"

Ha-ha )) Nice joke!

Also you're saying about your opponents theoretical knowledge.

It's all relative! For 2000+ player, "theoretical knowledge" at 1400 lvl is a joke!

So, if you want to outplay your opponents you need better preparation. Very logical, isn't it?

I have a friend of mine, he is strong IM. And he is also saying that people on his level don't know how to play certain openings  And you're saying that people on 1400 lvl theoretically prepaired? 

My advice for students that want to deviate on 1.e4 is to play 1...d5, but everything depends of personal stile of play, if you dont want too much of theory definitly go to 1...d5

Its very important is to pick something you enjoy thats it. you are gonna play the same opening for years and get good at it not switching so fun is priority 1. If you have looked at an opening and analysed resulting positions for years it doesnt matter what the other guy prepares against you having been told recently you are the opponent.

See, playing the caro over the french is avoiding the complexity that the french offers, and I doubt that King smith recommended e5 to get him play a complex line, but instead to take a fair share of the center and stick to the principles, which is good but it's just too simple and won't help to improve all that much
 

 

Who told you that French is more complicated then Caro or e5?

You simply don't understand that everything is RELATIVE!! Problems you're solving in your games in French is a JOKE in comparison with problems GMs try to solve in "easy" e5 or Caro, like you're saying!

if wanting complicated positions sadly the french is a bad choice. you will get the exchange french more than anything else

Yes but he's not a GM, at this level he's gonna get simple positional grinds, whereas in the french his opponents are gonna come at him, overexpand and collapse, there is no reason to go personal or to tell a 1700 that his games are a joke when he is helping a lower rated player

Ahhh well sorta true, but I think this is at the 1500ish level, I think 1400s will feel like having an advantage against the french and try to overexpand

could be and as a french player myself i face the exchange french so much im learning it well. i got over 50% winrate against it