Scandinavian is good for limiting white's good options. I hate it, but it fits the bill, here.
The Qa5 Scandi with Nf6, c6, and Bf5 is a simple way to get a solid position where white has a lot of chances to go wrong without too many theoretical landmines.
French is good for that, too.
A couple ways to approach the more "theoretical" parts of a repertoire in the French that can limit your theory:
Vs Nc3 or Nd2 ...Nf6, intending to answer e5 with ...Nd7, followed by ...c5.
or
Vs Nc3 or Nd2 ...dxe4.
at your level, nothing but e4 e5. Nothing else.
I appreciate blunt honesty, but can you elaborate?
Will immediately fighting for the center make me improve faster? I'm afraid there will be too many opening options. I'm trying to develop a good 1. d4 game on both sides, and just have a single solid 1.e4 response as black. Something to pull others out of their comfort zone would be ideal.
I would really like the owens and modern options listed above. The scandinavian is less attractive (for me) because I don't like my queen hanging around without a specific job.
at your level, nothing but e4 e5. Nothing else.
Agreed. Learn the open games as black. There is nothing more sound or principled against 1.e4 than 1...e5. Don't worry about opening names, or deep analysis, just bring your pieces out, knights before bishops, castle quickly, control the centre, etc. Following sound opening principles will usually give you a good game after 1...e5, unlike the sicilian, all the moves make a lot of sense and are natural and logical.Spend most of your time for now on tactics and some basic endings. My advice is the same for your white openings too. Just play natural developing moves and instead of spending time learning some complex lines that you are never going to get the chance to play until you get stronger, focus on playing good moves and avoiding blunders. Make sure you analyze your games too, if only briefly, to see your mistakes and how you and your opponent could have played better.
at your level don't even worry about the opening just study tactics
at your level, nothing but e4 e5. Nothing else.
Yes , that's right. These of openings teach rapid development and usually kingside castling and a thematic d4(or d5) at some point supported by pieces.Open lines etc etc...
Having said that on chess.com there's no reason why you shouldn't dip your toe in other stuff , because the opportunity to play so many games exists, and at some point in the future return to the Sicilian which I believe ultimately is the best defence to 1e4
Many low level players (myself included) tend to get too caught up in opening theory. You need to know opening principles, but you can get buy for quite a while without deep opening study. Make sure your moves fight for control of the center, develop your minor pieces, make way for castling and king safety, and look out for tactical traps. If you are going to "study" as a low level player you will get far more benefit out of tactical problems, and perhaps a bit of endgame knowledge (like the first few chapters of Silman's Complete Endgame Course).
Things like the Sicilian are very double edged. They can give black winning chances, but if you don't understand what you are doing you will likely get blown off the board. A bit of common wisdom that is often told to lower level players (again, myself included, and I think it is a good idea) isto respond to e4 with e5 and d4 with d5. Learn classical chess before the more modern openings. Its ok to do some opening study, but it is far better to know one line and understand why each move is made, than to memorize ten lines with no real grasp of why those moves are "good".
I like the French. It is solid, and once you understand the plan, fairly easy to play.
I really appreciate the replies. I do understand the basics of development:
try to control the center (or undermine) - don't use flanks until center is deadlocked
knights before bishops (generally)
move minor pieces once until development is complete
don't develop the queen too early or you'll just have to dance it away as your opponent develops
castle to safety
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What has helped me the most so far is finding a Silman book in the library about Amateurs Mind. So I understand changing the board to favor knights or bishops. He states not leaving pieces hanging will boost you 100 points... attitute will give you 100 points. That in combination with studying openings has really helped me. I went from 1000 to 1200. So yah, still very weak, but now I've stopped sliding. By studying some of the openings I've gained ideas about how to attack the center, instead of just piling up pieces until I can calculate a favorable exchange.
I'm not mindlessly memorizing. I'm trying to learn why the openings are developed as they are. I also understand the concept of variations. When I said I don't like the Caro Kann, it isn't just the Caro Kann... specifically I hate back in Caro Kann Advance variation, which is a very natural development for white :(
What I really want is to improve. But I have switched to responding 1. e4 e5 to give it a go.
Hi,
I'm trying to learn chess. My original effort to equalize the openings were to "learn" Sicilian as black for 1. e4 and then play 1. d4 when I am white. The idea is I can learn the black and white side of 1. d4 and then only learn only 1 opening for when white opens king side.
In actuality, I am starting to love queen side openings. I like the open Queens gambit and am learning some options there and as black I try for Nimzo or Queens Indian.
Unfortunately, I feel totally lost and unhappy with Sicilian play and now need a new opening for 1. e4 when I play black. I started looking at Caro Kann, but really don't like it. Sicilian and Caro Kann were appealing because it seemed black was able to force white into those openings based on his first move. White did not have many other options, and so it would limit how many openings I need to learn (I'm loooooow level). I don't seem to like either though. What are some options? Particularly, what openings could I learn as black that limit white's options... and maybe are similar in play to the Indian openings or Queens gambit?