Best Defense vs e4?

In the 1992 U.S Open I had a successful tournament playing 1d4 in combination with 2 c4 as white and playing Petrov's defense as black. I am the first to admit that [at least in the case of the Petrov's] I found myself struggling to win games I needed to in the later rounds, but it is 'what I knew'. The percentages I gave were based on GM play [as those were the only opening 'stats' that I had access to] and certainly it would be quite a daunting task for even a regular 'club' player to take on the theoretical complexities of say the sheveningen variation of the sicilian [widely used by Kasparov]. Karpov became world champion while usually playing 1 .....e5. Few people below the master level know more than a few openings well. If one is going to successfully compete on a regular basis in Swiss system pairing type tournaments and has a somewhat limited time to study opening theory I would suggest picking something that appeals to you and sticking with it. Your knowledge of it's intricacies can frequently remove some openings 'drawish reputations' [there are usually ways to avoid early 'forced' draws if you're 'better' or simply need to win. If you like the Caro-Kann, then the Caro-Kann it is.

I play the Caro- Kann