Conclusion: 1.Nf3 !

Playing e4 or d4 is playing to the hands of the opponent, unless you have a really good memory, and knows exactly the plans against any line that he's going to play.

Besides, if you like, for example, to play the Sicilian against e4; then why on earth would you play e4 yourself? - you know that you might face the Sicilian. Same goes for d4. I don't actually believe that in an opening 'there are plans for both sides', these openings are meant for Black, but White, with accurate play, can get something - the plans are for Black. Playing with no serious plan, is guessing moves.

f4 - I tried, it's bad, because your king is too exposed.

c4 - I tried, Black can force you to play d4 or he's better. You can also see it in one of the Carlsen-Nepo. (aka World Championship) games. It limits you to play in a very specific way too.

And the rest - I like b3 (Nimzo-Larsen Attack), d3 (Mieses) - they're just fine, but, the least commital - Nf3.

g3 I like less, because - he's attack is really easy - h5 h4... and 0-0-0 properly is too many moves.

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My plan is to erect one pawn (usually the e pawn) to the 4th rank, supported by another pawn. (when the time is right - not right away - like e4 d5 - Scandinavian, where you just lose the e pawn at once), why is the Philidor Defense so strong? Why is the K.I.D so powerful? yeah - e4, d3, c2.

I usually fianchetto a bishop, waiting to see where he would castle, how he will build his pawns, and then decide what to do, It's not an opening - it's ideas - mostly the King's Indian Attack, Nimzo-Larsern Attack, and the wonderful and winning, Colle-Zukertort, if ever possible. I like to fiachetto both (g3, as mentioned, not at move 1), because one bishop will be active if the center will move, or opponent will spend many moves blocking the bishops and then I can just remanouver them (they're quick - so I don't loss tempos so much

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Any thoughts? lower rated, higher rated. Open discussion, your opinion matters, please share.

I play 1.Nf3 quite often, for much the same reasons. White has some flexibility to adjust, based on black's defense.

The Nimzo-Larsen can be quite fun, via 1.nf3. (nf3, b2, Bb2).

I like playing e2-e3 in that case, as it gives white the option of going into a reversed Nimzo-Indian, if black puts his pawns on c5+d5, and his knight on c6. Or a reversed Bogo-Indian, if black has pawns on c5+d5 and a knight on f6.

https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Chess_Opening_Theory/1._Nf3

Other reasons for playing 1. Nf3 go something along the lines of:

White hates playing against Variation X, but doesn't mind Variation Y.

White plays 1. Nf3 as a request for information.

If Black attempts to transpose into Variation X, which White hates, White will refuse to allow it and play an independent line instead.

If Black attempts to transpose into Variation Y, White will go along with that.

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What can be better?

From a team match:

"From the outset two moves, 1.e4 or 1.d4, open up lines for the Queen and a Bishop. Therefore, theoretically one of these two moves must be the best, as no other first move accomplishes so much." - Capablanca
Research by AlphaZero only confirms this
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2111.09259.pdf 

1. Nf3 not only prevents 1... e5 (unless the opponent wants to play the refuted Walrus gambit), but also prevents transposing to d4 gambits involving black playing e5 later such as the Albin and Budapest. Also, if 1... d5, white can play c4, and black is usually forced to play white's game. If 1... c5, white has a choice between a Sicilian and a symmetrical english. Most 1. Nf3 players don't like the very theoretical nature of the Sicilian so they opt for the English. If 1. Nf6, white can just play a KIA. 

Good

Nf3 requires you to know quite a bit of theory to take advantage of its transpositional nature. It also locks you out of some pretty strong mainlines like QGD exchange and Saemisch KID. I wouldn't recommend it until you're pretty advanced.

“I don’t believe that in an opening there are plans for both sides” 

rubbish. Maroczy bind- both sides have plans. 
hedgehog- both sides have plans. Any benoni structure- same. King Indian structure? Of course. And don’t get me started on the various najdorf positions.

On your comment about f4- a very one sided claim about the position. Black has various tries to exploit the weakening of the kingside, but they’re generally about equal. According to your statement, the mainline closed sicilian is bad for white because he plays f4 early.

on the comment about g3- what? Doesn’t make much sense. But I assume you say that black just castles queenside and runs his pawns up the board and wins, which is a gross oversimplification of the game. So apparently white just sits and just lets black run him over? 

I only meant f4 as a first move, Closed Sicilian - something else.

g3, umm, okay right, but, why not playing it safer? b3 safer than g3, because after g3, 0-0 is now more sensitive to ready-made, Yugoslav-style, attacks. See Sicilian Dragon vs. Yugoslav Attack, Pirc vs. 150 Attack, K.I.D - Samisch, Sokolov way (=semi Averbakh System), Averbakh System. - so it's not a gross over-simplification - it's based.

The Sicilian Dragon got 2 dental treatments - Acc. and Hyper Acc. - it means something.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yctXiDFjNPo&t=1390s

SGM Ivan Sokolov shows how to strip a king. and you don't even castle... if This doesn't tell you something, fine..

SGM Mamedyarov:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJ3F5rPMpDM&t=621s

I've recently played several 1.Nf3 games wining about 91% but it seems the achilles heel of 1.Nf3 is the advance variation. I never have ideas in it.

That's very clever, thank you. I tried Nf3 only recently, and, yes, the 'small pawns method' that works wonders in Sicilian and starting-point of the K.I.D, just don't work much in Nf3, or so it appears. I may as well do the same. Unless Black plays d6 or Nc6 early, so I'll play a quick d4. maybe my h5-h4 instant-checkmates fears are but a mirage.

Yes it transposes nicely to a Catalan with d4.

f4 can transpose into many sicilian and reversed English lines. For example, 1.c4 e5 Nc3 Nc6 g3 f5. Reversed.

f4 can transpose into closed sicilian frequently. Since the closed sicilian is sound, then we must consider independent options. This leaves us with the reverse Dutch or Froms gambit. The Dutch is played by many GMs and it would be strange to assume that playing the Dutch a tempo up would cause more problems. From gambit theory does not show anything more than black getting some compensation for the pawn. Other options such as 1…b6 pose no threat to f4 because they do not attempt to exploit the “weakening” of the kingside. Therefore having considered most options, f4 is a reasonable move.

Your explanation of 1.g3 considers white just “castling into it”. Using the sicilian dragon as a counter example is a poor one because 1) it’s proven that a reverse sicilian yugoslav attack does not work and 2) the extra tempo always helps in sharp positions, which helps prove number 1. Since the other examples are also examples of just opposite side castling, which are naturally sharp positions, and since black has theory to find some semblance of equality in all of them, then we must conclude that having an extra tempo as white will help more than hurt. Painting 1.g3 as an opening which is “easily countered” by opposite side castling does not work, because if it did, then everybody would do it. 

In regards to your videos… they could be applied to any reasonable castled position. A simple case of nitpicking- have you shown videos where the queenside castle got hammered? 

Perhaps you yourself cannot play those positions well, and that’s fine. I cannot play any reasonable queens gambit declined position well. But trying to paint your point of view as an objective analysis is flawed.

Sorry @solmyr1234 - you can hop on over to li-chess and pop in any opening into their analysis, and literally any opening you put in comes out to roughly the same win%. Go ahead, try it. Go ahead. I'm serious. They're all basically the same.

I have Nepo's chess-able course on the King's Gambit. He goes through over 300 lines sometimes up to 15 moves deep, and even in the most critical lines, with perfect play, black is no more than slightly better.

But that's not even the point. The point is that unless you're a GM or Stockfish, it literally does not matter what opening you choose. For your level, Nf3 is a fine opening. If you like it, and you do well with it, that's the only thing that's important. But there is no magic bullet opening that does better than anything else. It just doesn't exist.

Here's why Nimzo-Indian is safer than King's Indian...

without fianchetto, with fianchetto...

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