The French Defense
The Caro-Kann Defense
The Scandinavian Defense
The Sicilian Defenses (Najdorf, Dragon, Classical, Scheveningen)
The Double King’s Pawn Game (1.e4 e5)
The Queen’s Gambit Declined
The Slav (and Semi-Slav) Defense
The Dutch Defense
The Nimzo-Indian Defense
The King’s Indian Defense
hope this helps
The Caro-Kann is my favorite
Do not worry about openings. You will never lose because of the opening. Just play natural moves developing pieces into play towards the center and you are fine.
Simplest is to defend 1 e4 e5 and 1 d4 d5 as black.
Anyone have any favorite books (or YouTube content) specific to openings with the black pieces? I'm a beginner and I've spent most of my opening studies on white (London, Italian/Fried Liver/Traxler) but I've struggled with the black pieces. My only black opening I have some confidence in is the French.
if you like french, you should check out some of the intro videos on playing 1.b6 as black. You often can get similar pawn structures to the french, but especially at your level of play, winning chances are very high with it. Given the openings you play, you will benefit from some exposure to a hypermodern defense as well.
this is part 1 of smirnovs coverage. they are two parts.
The suggested openings are bogus.
example: It gives you ruy Lopez for basically every single personality.
I bought the book Modern Chess Openings today and have been reading up on the King's Indian Defense in response to d4. The main line goes as follows:
Basically, as a hypermodern opening, the KID attempts to passively control the center (rather than controlling it directly with your pawns), taking a few turns to develop pieces and castle. Then, you use a pawn thrust to attack the enemy pawn formation and move your pieces in to take control of the center after a beneficial exchange, or position your pieces to attack the castled enemy king.
Anyone have any favorite books (or YouTube content) specific to openings with the black pieces? I'm a beginner and I've spent most of my opening studies on white (London, Italian/Fried Liver/Traxler) but I've struggled with the black pieces. My only black opening I have some confidence in is the French.