Any aggressive openings for black?

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CastPoc

Hey there, was just wondering if you guys had any suggestions for some aggressive openings I could use against 1.e4. 

For my entire chess journey, I've played the french against e4. Although I've been quite successful with it, I would like to switch it up and play something more aggressive. Something like an open sicilian, where both sides just attack each others kings.

I used to only play the Queens gambit which I knew really well. Although recently, I've started playing the nimzo-larsen attack, and have had much, much more success playing it. Even though I hardly know any theory, I've racked up a 70% win rate with it. I've had beautiful attacking games such as the one in the diagram below, and would like to be able to play something similar as black. 

I've thought about learning the Owens defense/English defense, or maybe even the dragon sicilian, but I'm not too sure.

Any suggestions would be very much appreciated. 

AngryPuffer

ohohoho. Its very difficult for black to get agressive without sacrificing some material. Id recommend

  1. Marshall gambit
  2. Frankenstein-Dracula gambit
  3. Sicilian defense (closed sicilian doesnt give the ¨agressive feel¨ to it)
  4. French defence (The tarrash and exchange do not give the ¨agressive feel¨ to it)
  5. English defense agianst c4
  6. Kings indian defense agianst d4
  7. tarrash defense agianst d4
  8. queens gambit accepted agianst d4
  9. alekhines defense agianst e4

most of these are somewhat dubious on the top level, but all can be played even up to master level.

Ethan_Brollier

Dragon Sicilian isn't a terrible idea. Go watch Miodrag Perunovic on Youtube if you find yourself getting slaughtered theoretically.
Alternatives are the Najdorf Sicilian, which plays slightly slower in exchange for a much stronger attack, the Paulsen Sicilians (Kan and Taimanov variations), which are more solid and have structures more similar to the French, which you are familiar with, but lean more towards being solid and flexible than counterattacking.
Also, the French is very aggressive. I'd assume you're speaking of the Exchange variations when you insinuate it isn't aggressive, as the 7... Be7 and 7... a6 Steinitz, MacCutcheon, Closed Tarrasch, and Paulsen Advance can all be very fun and aggressive. And while the Exchange kinda sucks, so too does the Alapin, for very similar reasons.

CastPoc

Thanks for the suggestions! I'll definitely look more into the dragon sicilian.

Also, I do agree that the french is quite aggressive (expect when they play the exchange variation) Although i should have specified this earlier, I'm looking for an opening where you attack your opponent on the kingside. The french is very aggressive, but the attack is aimed at the queenside.

AngryPuffer

playing the classical open sicilian may also be a good idea, just keeping it simple with Bd7-Rc8-a6-b5 and Qa5

ThrillerFan
CastPo wrote:

Thanks for the suggestions! I'll definitely look more into the dragon sicilian.

Also, I do agree that the french is quite aggressive (expect when they play the exchange variation) Although i should have specified this earlier, I'm looking for an opening where you attack your opponent on the kingside. The french is very aggressive, but the attack is aimed at the queenside.

There is no such opening.

While in MOST cases, Black attacks on the queenside in the French, it is not always the case. Also, sometimes the White King IS on the queenside. See the Steinitz, for example.

Even openings like the Kings Indian Defense, which many mistakenly think of as a kingside hack job, that is ONLY in the Mar Del Plata. In the Saemisch or Four Pawns, Black's play is on the queenside.

There is no one size fits all. You mention the French being a queenside attack, well, the following game was played yesterday, and White's king was on the queenside, and Black's play is all about the attack on the c3 pawn, but ultimately, he eventually advances it, and once Black re-routes the Knight to get White's LSB to move, Black's game became a lot easier, and Black won.

Now some mentioned the Sicilian. Just like the French (basically Black's two aggressive responses to 1.e4), White can dull the game in an instant with an Alapin or a Closed Sicilian just like how he can with the Tarrasch or Exchange French.

Sometimes an all out attack, no matter what opening you play, just isn't in the cards.

I had 4 exchange Frenches over the board against players ranging from the mid-1800s to mid-1900s in a 2 1/2 week span. I won all 4 of them! Why? One of them still featured a Queen, Rook, and Bishop each (his Light squared Bishop, my dark-squared one, he was killed on the dark squares). The other 3? MINOR PIECE ENDINGS! If you study your minor piece endings, your attitude about the exchange French and "dull chess" will change for ever! Now, my favorite line to face is the Exchange. I know I won't kill his king in 25 moves, but you have given me half a point, and if you want the other half, you better be a shark at minor piece endings. Of course, if you are like, 2400, I will take an easy draw with Black any day! 2400s don't play the exchange against me. They play 3.Nc3!

So long story short, if you have been playing the French, stick with it. Changing to another opening will not give you repetitive attacks on the King. Even the Najdorf, what if White plays 6.Be2 (Karpov) and castles Kingside? Your play is still on the queenside like in the French.

You are doing yourself no favors by starting over just to find more direct assaults on the King. They happen in the French quite often. The two that stand out the most are the Steinitz and the Portisch-Hook.

AngryPuffer

alot of the french defense lines are black castling queenside and seeking counterplay on the center. I think there are only a couple of lines where black actually plays for queenside expansion and an attack

example lines here:

it really seems as if all of blacks play is based on attacking whites center and undermining the b2-e5 pawn chain

AngryPuffer

@ThrillerFan

Black can get a somewhat interesting game in the 2.d5 lines. Black typically will give white an IQP and play against it like you do normally.

pleewo
Ethan_Brollier wrote:

Dragon Sicilian isn't a terrible idea. Go watch Miodrag Perunovic on Youtube if you find yourself getting slaughtered theoretically.
Alternatives are the Najdorf Sicilian, which plays slightly slower in exchange for a much stronger attack, the Paulsen Sicilians (Kan and Taimanov variations), which are more solid and have structures more similar to the French, which you are familiar with, but lean more towards being solid and flexible than counterattacking.
Also, the French is very aggressive. I'd assume you're speaking of the Exchange variations when you insinuate it isn't aggressive, as the 7... Be7 and 7... a6 Steinitz, MacCutcheon, Closed Tarrasch, and Paulsen Advance can all be very fun and aggressive. And while the Exchange kinda sucks, so too does the Alapin, for very similar reasons.

alapin doesnt suck sad.png

pleewo

tbh I think the french is aggressive but if u are looking for a sicilian id go for the Sveshnikov personally. It can get quite sharp and tactical but u also get to delve into positional play.

As mentioned before, the Dragon is extremely aggressive. You could also consider the najdorf or the accelerated dragon ig but u might run into a lot of maroczy binds

AngryPuffer
pleewo wrote:
Ethan_Brollier wrote:

Dragon Sicilian isn't a terrible idea. Go watch Miodrag Perunovic on Youtube if you find yourself getting slaughtered theoretically.
Alternatives are the Najdorf Sicilian, which plays slightly slower in exchange for a much stronger attack, the Paulsen Sicilians (Kan and Taimanov variations), which are more solid and have structures more similar to the French, which you are familiar with, but lean more towards being solid and flexible than counterattacking.
Also, the French is very aggressive. I'd assume you're speaking of the Exchange variations when you insinuate it isn't aggressive, as the 7... Be7 and 7... a6 Steinitz, MacCutcheon, Closed Tarrasch, and Paulsen Advance can all be very fun and aggressive. And while the Exchange kinda sucks, so too does the Alapin, for very similar reasons.

alapin doesnt suck

its boring for both sides. I truly believe that people online only play it either because they are lazy and want something easy or they want to make their opponent annoyed and get at them mentally.

pleewo

it isnt boring, i play alapin as white and have a lot of fun. and with the lines i play theres a good bit of theory needed as well so it isnt necesarilly lazy.

Jenglish007
AngryPuffer wrote:
pleewo wrote:
Ethan_Brollier wrote:

Dragon Sicilian isn't a terrible idea. Go watch Miodrag Perunovic on Youtube if you find yourself getting slaughtered theoretically.
Alternatives are the Najdorf Sicilian, which plays slightly slower in exchange for a much stronger attack, the Paulsen Sicilians (Kan and Taimanov variations), which are more solid and have structures more similar to the French, which you are familiar with, but lean more towards being solid and flexible than counterattacking.
Also, the French is very aggressive. I'd assume you're speaking of the Exchange variations when you insinuate it isn't aggressive, as the 7... Be7 and 7... a6 Steinitz, MacCutcheon, Closed Tarrasch, and Paulsen Advance can all be very fun and aggressive. And while the Exchange kinda sucks, so too does the Alapin, for very similar reasons.

alapin doesnt suck

its boring for both sides. I truly believe that people online only play it either because they are lazy and want something easy or they want to make their opponent annoyed and get at them mentally.

I'm an Alapin player, and you can call it laziness or you could call it efficient. Most players at my level know lots of theory, so to avoid it and get comfortably better, play the Alapin. Besides, you can still get an attack as White with this opening (see FM James Canty's "c3 Sicil for the Kill" course here on chess.com for more details.

Omed

Try not to swich openings too much as that will hinder your performance, stick to 3-4 openings you know very well.

XynaD

I think a Scandinavian is also aggressive putting ur pawn on d5

CastPoc

@thrillerfan Personally, my opponents never really ever castle queenside. If they play 3.nc3, I play the Rubinstein variation which is an opening where it's less common for them to castle queenside (At least in my experience)

@Omed Yeah, I agree, learning more openings will hardly improve performance, if anything it could worsen it. I just want to learn a couple different openings as a way to have more fun with chess.

1Lindamea1
Just play Avetik’s french
kostiukov_daniil
Try to play Blackmar-Dimer gambit or Danish (North) gambit. The last one could be not accepted, (I would never accept this), but with greedy opponents it’s working. 😉
1Lindamea1
kostiukov_daniil написал:
Try to play Blackmar-Dimer gambit or Danish (North) gambit. The last one could be not accepted, (I would never accept this), but with greedy opponents it’s working. 😉

he said for BLACK

tygxc

"aggressive openings I could use against 1.e4"
++ Aggressive players like Tal, Fischer, Kasparov played... Sicilian Najdorf Variation.