1700 who can't find a white opening

Hey, I'm a 1700 who has played several white openings, but I can't find one that really matches what I want to play. I've played e4, c4, Nf3, and b3. Thanks for your suggestions!

First of all, what do you want to play?

Great question @uglyyork! Personally, I like having a somewhat aggressive but solid base. I'm an accelerated dragon or caro-kann player, and I play the KID or Dutch against d4.

I play KID and like Dutch, too, as I like it assymetric and don't like QG or Berlin Wall where just e4 vs e5 or d4 vs d5 standing. But I always go either too aggressive, or too defensive to lure the opponent into attack I can counter.
Against e4, Sicilian is always interesting; against d4 maybe sometimes a Benoni.

But I most play VC and most active in the midgame.

I love the King’s Gambit, it’s super fun to play, leads to sharp, complex, and tactically rich positions, and is considered to be very much viable at the 1700s level.

I like playing Ruy Lopez and Open Sicilian. I would consider these openings to be aggressive with a solid base. This is my favourite opening to play with the white pieces:

Hope it helps!

Thanks for your suggestions everyone, I truly appreciate it!

italian is also good guys

As a former Kings Indian and current Dutch players, and one that has played many aggressive lines with White but not going completely out of whack, I would suggest a move you have not listed yet.

1.d4

Now you might be saying "But doesn't Black get all the fun with the Benoni and Kings Indiam and Grunfeld?" The answer is no. Why is that? You will not play 2.c4.

"But the London and Colle are so boring..."

Nope! Not playing those lame openings either!

You only need to know 4 openings and a sideline and you can completely nail it as White.

Those 5 openings are:

Levitsky Attack - 1.d4 d5 2.Bg5. The only thing to keep in mind is 2...f6 is best answered by the Modern 3.Bd2 because 3.Bh4 Nh6 is actually good for Black. Otherwise, in the main line, a gambit works real well for White. 2...c6 3.e3 Qb6 4.Bd3! Qxb2 5.Nd2 Qb6 6.Ngf3 and look at White's development for a pawn. White will play for an early e4 break while Black's pants are down.

Trompowsky Attack - 1.d4 Nf6 2.Bg5 - this is where you would have to spend the most time studying, and is the meat of the repertoire

Anti-Dutch - 1.d4 f5 2.Bg5! - many books cover this line effectively and can be very annoying for Black. It is one of the reasons I play 1...e6 and only then 2...f5 as Black.

French Defense - 1.d4 e6 2.e4 - with 1...e6, White cannot play 2.Bg5 and cannot prevent main line Dutches other than this way. I suggest after 2...d5 that you study either 3.Nc3 or 3.e5, depending on preference. 3.e5 is more positional than 3.Nc3.

Pirc/Modern - 1.d4 d6/g6 2.e4 - The 2.Bg5 ideas are less effective here than after 1...d5. With ...d5 not played, and no knight to grab on f6, White must watch out for blinders like the following: 1.d4 d6 2.Bg5?! c6 3.e3?? Qa5+ - OOPS!

You might also need to know some minor Benoni lines that are really good for White, like 1.d4 e6 2.e4 c5?! 3.d5! And you will play Nc3 WITHOUT c4. Develop Be2 BEFORE Nf3 to avoid the pin. If Bg4, then Nd2 (allow the trade of LSB's - do not give away the knight as it is headed to c4 to pressure d6). However, 1.d4 e6 2.e4 will typically be answered by 2...d5, not 2...c5.

Nearly a year later and I get one of the most instructive posts. Thank you @ThrillerFan! I never really figured out one opening and I've somewhat stopped playing but I'll try them out.

If you like the Dutch (I do too), then you may want to consider Bird's Opening as a secondary opening as well (I wouldn't make it your first choice, but it is nice to have something to mix things up). It's basically White playing the Dutch, so similar ideas.

Play a queens gambit with g3 and nf3

No, it really isn't. The Dutch is one opening where being "up a move" is not a good thing.

1...f5 banks on the fact that White has weakened the e4-square when he plays 1.d4. When you advance a pawn two squares, you weakens the two diagonals that cross the square behind that which the pawn occupies. So for the move d4, you weakens the two diagonals that cross d3, or namely the b1-h7 and f1-a6 diagonals. The former includes the e4 square, and so Black pounces on it with 1...f5 and 2...Nf6.

When you play 1.f4 as White, Black has not weakened the e5-square. Black can ignore it, play 1...d5, and go into reverse Dutch lines, but he is not obligated to, and can play lines with ...d6 instead of ...d5, and not weaken e5, making the pawn break ...e5 easier to achieve against the Bird than e4 is to achieve against the Dutch.

The Bird is actually weaker than the Dutch, unlike many other openings in reverse where the extra move can be helpful.

If you are talking 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.g3, that's the Catalan

You shouldn't go for bongcloud this early but you shall go for KIA.

huh? I'm 1200 points higher rated than you...

I also had alot of trouble choosing a white opening... there are alot of options but none of them seem entirely satisfying.

I prefer lines that are solid, but also offbeat and can go aggressive if the opponent doesn't know them... as black I play a few different less common sicilians, and the QGA / slav.

Ultimately for white I've settled on the Van Geet, I would recommend trying it.

But if you do play something super-common like 1. e4... I recommend playing lines that are either unusual or chaotic... like the vienna, the Tal variation, or the apocalypse attack, or the rasa-studier gambit, or the la bourdonaise vs. the french... etc. 
Sometimes I'll mix in a theoretical line but only 1 or 2, and only if there's not a much better option.

For 1. d4 the Trompowsky + QGD exchange is also a good repertoire... I usually play the Breyer slav there as well.

Since you're a dutch player you may also look into Bird's opening (1. f4).

For this suggestion that the Bird is worse than the Dutch - we don't really have to speculate, we can just look at the eval: Bird's eval is about -0.14, dutch is +0.28... bird is better for white than dutch is for black. That's if black plays perfectly... let's be realistic, that pretty much never happens... people have higher priorities than deeply studying birds opening refutations.

As someone who has tried so many different openings for so long I finally settled on the opening moves the two repertoire books Keep It Simple 1 d4 and Strategic Play with 1 d4 use. That's 1 d4 2 Nf3 3 g3 4 Bg2 5 0-0 6 c4. The six moves sequence is usually played, but not always, it depends on what black does.

I find Strategic Play with 1 d4 book to be the simpler overall repertoire, the Keep It Simple 1 d4 to be in general a little more aggressive and with a little more variety of black's moves given. I use both books, choosing from each to have my repertoire. Even in lines that are rather equal white often has the better side of equal in annoying pressure that black needs to counter correctly and can easily become worse.

Have you tried the Botvinnik System of the English Opening?

It gives a formation somewhat like this: