An unsound opening repertoire?

I have a promising student and these are the openings he enjoys playing - and understands the positions - should I let him stick with it long term?

As white

• Trompowsky Attack gainst everything (1..e6 then London or Torre)

As Black

• Old Benoni (1..c5) vs 1.d4, 1.Nf3, 1.c4
• Scandinavian vs 1.e4

What can we say about this?

He is quite a creative player and strong tactically and seems to be doing ok with them.

Thanks

They're not my first choices, but they're not terrible. Not by a long shot.

If he's comfortable playing that, I say it's fine. But I don't suggest holding on to an opening forever in any case: You will learn more if you play different positions.

I also use a tromp+london+torre combo something like

1.d4 nf6 2.Bg5  (Trompowsky)
1.d4 Nf6 2.Bg5 e6 3.Nf3 (Torre by transposition) 
1.d4 f5 2.Bg5 (Hoptin Attack)
1.d4 d5 (or e6) Bf4 

The idea behind the London move is that 2.Bg5 is weak without a knight on f6, and also the b8-h2 diagonal has been weakened (e6 is often followe d by d5).

None of these are even close to unsound, pretty much as solid as you can get, although the london and torre arn't very ambitious. 

Scandinavian is also completely solid and well respected even at the highest level, so I wouldnt worry about that. The old benoni is perfectly fine, also annoying to play against.

I wouldnt worry about his openings, theyre ok. 

The Torre is pretty ambitious...

Expertise87 wrote:

The Torre is pretty ambitious...

Apart from a few exceptions such as the spassku gambit..not really. White isn't striving for an advantage in the lines. Then again I guess it depends on an individuals definition of ambitious.

Do you have any lines in mind outside of the spassky (excluding the more unsound of these ex/Wagner)?.

I'm referring to the attacking setup normally adopted in the Torre. First off, against the KID, the Torre is a nice route to a good position where White has a space advantage without much risk. But in 1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Bg5 lines where Black does not play an early Ne4 or h6, White can get a good game with the standard Nbd2, e3, Bd3, c3, Ne5, f4, Qf3-h3, Ndf3 ideas and can either keep the king in the center or castle to either side, in any event with an attack should Black choose to castle kingside.