aggressive repertoire for black

If your main goal is to have fun you can do whatever you want. If your goal is to become a better chess player I doubt that watching Gotham's videos or memorizing trappy openings will do the job. Play a simple opening and focus on things that will actually have an impact on your chess.

Openings have zero impact on your results at your current level.

i have made a decision to not confuse myself with all this search and just play some stuff but i just wanted to comment on this and say that against 3. Bb5+ there is the 3... Nbd7 line for Black. you are giving away some advantage (very little though from like +0.3 to +0.5) but it has more fun lines and here is an example of it's success:

so yeah

i really only started searching for openings because i kept losing in e4 e5 positions and my current opening has helped me get over that

but youre right. while i might get totally winning positions in let's say the vienna gambit, if black doesn't fall into a trap, i still need to do the job of beating them. ill probably play a mix of openings and will probably learn a simpler opening like the caro kann so that i can still have fun while learning to play less over-the-top, aggressive openings. it has some aggressive lines like the tartakower, where there are some Bxh3 sacrifices. 3...c5 vs the advanced caro is also a decent way to destroy white's center and as a bonus it avoids lines like the tal variation after 3...Bf5, which is 4. h4. not like anyone knows these lines at my level, but these lineas are simple and effective.

i know that, but his e4 course is specifically marketed as 'an attacking repertoire'. i should still learn positional chess and how to crush opponents without launching a massive attack on their king and i would like some resources to do so. the meta way to play as black is to 'first equalize, then win', which is why openings like the KID have been abandoned and gm level stuff such as nimzo-indian has become popular.

by 'scandi is trash' are you talking about both main variations (2...Qxd5 and 2...Nf6) or any one?

the scandi isn't the best thing in the world but i really don't think it's as bad as you say it is. both variations have been played even at high levels (mostly in blitz though)

but i still understand where you come from with this thought. even i hated on the scandi because i was always like 'you bring the queen out early' and then proceeded to have that opening be the opening in which i lose the most for some time. now that isn't really the case but that's probably because no one knows the actual ideas of a random first move they play and they do weird things like Qe6+ followed by f6 (btw 3. Nf3 with the idea to to play d4 and c4 before Nc3 is my main weapon against the scandi with 2...Qxd5 and i've never faced 2...Nf6 even though i've played it as black). if i play anyone who knows how to counter my Nf3 line against 2...Qxd5 properly, then i'd say that it's fair game and that i would not have a guaranteed win.

i do agree with the modern being good though.

You are 700 Elo, let's face it, you could play anything and still win, with Black or with White.

Just pick something, anything, and play it a lot. Learn about what positions arise, and how you will deal with them, and go from there. If you don't like "what happens", change your opening. If you find "things go bad" many moves into a game, it's probably not your opening.

The Sad Truth is the Scandy isn’t considered good in the higher levels of chess.

Sometimes, High Level Chess players play the Scandy as a Surprise or to Mix things up.

Overall, the Judgement on the Scandy has been set forward by high level players.

The Scandy doesn’t hold up in higher levels of chess which has massive implications for players low and middle level of chess. This is the downside Players don’t talk about!

What if you decide to play and study the Scandy for 1 or 2 years?

Than your ranking increases from low to middle to high.

Once, you manage to reach that high ranking amount. The players of the tier are so strong. They are going to force you to quit the Scandy and play something else.

Otherwise, your going to struggle winning games.

Do you want to spend all that time studying the Scandy only to find out at the end. Your going to have to play something else in order to try and win? Some people would consider it a waste.

Do you want to invest your time studying an opening doomed to fail?

Ultimately, you will end up needing to play something else.

Some people would argue why not play something different sooner so at least your time isn’t wasted? 

The Modern is long term Opening. The Caro Kann? French? Sicilians?

All these lines can be played long term.

‘Your not high level right now, but you are starting on a path!

Their are multiple paths to travel down.

‘Scandy is one with dead end, right?

You might not see it right now because your so far away from high level at moments to see it. But as you begin to travel eventually you will run into the dead end and at that point it going to be very discouraging for you.

It is something worth thinking about!

This is why I don’t recommend the opening to people.

I have seen people quit chess because of the Scandy.

Image spending 5 years of your life learning Scandy and improving yourself all the way to 2,000.

Than getting matched with title players who play like computer engines and they just destroy you.

Are you really going to start over on learning new opening? Some people quit!

It happens all the time because people don’t like to warn or give other people heads up anymore which is what I try to do.

It's almost like I'd rather not play either white or black in the Scandi. As white I have to deal with these hardcore scandi players who play this 50% of games and know alot more theory than I do, which I don't really feel motivated to learn. On the other hand I don't want to play this as black since... if I run into the white player who does know the theory I think I'm going to get a position that's not very pleasant.

This again relies on White to take the bait. I just keep developing with Nf3 and d4 and so on and at some point you have to play a6 to chase the bishop away, whereupon I play Be2 and it's the same thing except having the knight on d7 is worse than having the bishop there was.

Against the Modern just play the Bb5+ line I mentioned and enjoy being slightly better. Against the Qa5 line you play d4, Nf3, Bc4 and most commonly you plonk the knight on e5 and throw the g and h pawns at them. The theory kind of consists of when not to do that.

Against the Qd6 line I recommend doing what I do, which is get annoyed because you've looked up how to refute this stupid line like 3 times and then its another 1000 games before you see it again and you've forgotten.

People being a bit dramatic about the Scandi in here, it holds up absolutely fine at levels below like IM. At Lichess 2500+, in the Qa5 line Black is actually outscoring White, and the Modern Defense is still performing respectably as well. It's a bit masochistic to play it at those levels imo, but it still performs reasonably.

Curious to know what Bb5 line your talking about in the Modern?

I mentioned it earlier. I'm talking about the Modern Variation of the Scandi here not the Modern Defense, I messed up in the last paragraph there. 1. e4 d5 2. exd4 Nf6 3. Bb5+ Bd7 4. Be2.

London? Leads to many traps for your range, I would recommend it.

I think the Scandi is perfectly fine. True, it is not very popular at master level, but it's also not a trash opening (it was played in Anand vs Kasparov 1995), and the OP is rated 800, a bit early to worry about what to play once he/she is +2200. Besides, the pawn structure of the Scandy is a very common one. So playing it isn't really a waste of time as it can be applied to a lot of other openings later on.

Yeah, that sounds like me as a beginner. I started out playing flashy openings and gambits. And then I tried playing something more solid, that is the Petrov and the Slav, and my rating went up around 300 points in little time.

@caryaea12211 I think that as a beginner you should learn also classical openings (like the Queen's Gambit, the Ruy Lopez (on both sides), QGD and the Slav Defense) that give you a sense of the most important pawn structures (playing against/with hanging pawns or with or against an isolated pawn, the Carlsbad Structure etc.) and consider that attacking style might not be the best for you.

so now i understand why being super aggressive doesn't work as black that well. i now just need a solid opening, with not that much theory that can lead to some aggression but has pretty flexible game plans and guarantees at the minimum an equal position that's playable.

a perfect example? the nimzo-indian. this opening can be aggressive sometimes in the middle game if you get to plant your knight on e4 and bring your queen out and start attacking, but is mostly solid, guarantees equality at the bare minimum and has numerous middle-game plans. the only problem is the fact that some sources have told me that it's really theory-heavy, but the game plans look intuitive enough and no one at my level is going to know some razor-sharp line where you have to memorize 10-15 moves to not be dead lost out of the opening. i also find a lot of fun in playing a pretty normal position and finding ways to try and win, whether my ideas are good or not, and i think the nimzo-indian can definitely suit that, as long as i get a feel for the dynamics of the position (pawn structures, development, etc.)

against e4 i might try the caro-kann. i have tried it before but the garbage that you see at my level really threw me off (trust me people would play 2. e5 and meet d5 with en passant or play something which makes zero sense but somehow works for them), and every time i lost to players getting away with it, i would hate myself. this probably kickstarted me on this journey for this non-existent 'perfect opening' that ended like this. i will probably come back to the caro-kann after analyzing a few more lines though. the pirc might also be an option. there are some nice attacking lines if white plays 3. Nc3 followed by f3 and Be3 (i think it's called the 150-attack or something), but i don't really like the thought of having to deal with the austrian attack and that sort of stuff. there is also this setup with Nc3, h3, g4, Bg2, Ne2 and O-O that's so annoying for black even i play it as white. it's basically a line where white attacks you on the kingside except they have castled short instead of long and this setup is so sound it can even be played at the gm level (if a gm plays the pirc which i have never seen happen)

so overall i have changed my focus from 'i need to steamroll everyone as black aaa' to 'give me a solid opening where i can attack sometimes but mostly have a calm position'