roder_toro wrote:
My favorite is probably King's gambit as black :D but no one ever plays it as white.
agreed.
Do you play 1.e4 e5?
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Nov 12, 2013
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#23
I play 1.e4 e5 on both sides of the board. I love playing the Two Knights' Defense as black... the only annoying part for me is when my opponents play the Ruy. It's not even that difficult to play against, it's just... there's nothing good. Games with the Ruy are like GM games today - dry technical affairs...
(Sorry for my anti-Ruy bias)
Obviously you don't have to play/like the ruy lopez to win chess games.
It seems after a little affair with 1. d4 (Colle System) i'm giving another shot to open/ semi open games (as black i keep playing French defense) and start with 1 e4. Just because i think open games are tactically richer, i mean you have to be careful since the beginning. In Colle you can play "auto pilot" till move four, you do that in an open game and it's quite sure you'll en up losing a piece.
And as Dan Heisman put it "you have to be tactically sound to get better at chess" so it make sense to start playing open games where tactics motiff are there from the start.
No.
i ve been playing the ponziani, and the unexpectedley powerful london system. i been toying a bit wtih the colle zuketort but i like how the london constricts counterplay early in the game. any thoughts
ponziani is a double edged opening imo :P I like facing it, as black.
i like london over colle systems, people usually do not like systems, but i just use them as guidelines on how to reach harmonious structures and squares to develop pieces.
hmmm..true Roder toro...the colle for whatever reason has a better reputation at the higher levels of chess but i havent had the success with the colle as i have had with the london. I like the ponziani because if you play it well you can get them two center pawns all the way to the 6 and sometime 7th rank..march them right down the board and it puts tremendous pressure on the opponent to figure out what to do..
As White I mainly prefer lines from the Italian Game, especially the Evans Gambit or Greco Variation (after Black of course plays the Giuoco Piano). Sadly, I rarely get opportunities to play such openings since most players at my level typically play the 2 Knights Defense or (out-of-book) 3... f6 in response to the Italian Game.
I understand that openings like the Ruy Lopez are (arguably) more refined systems in modern chess than the openings I normally prefer to play; but I still very much like the more classical openings, as in my opinion, they make for more exciting chess games, and are great for catching novice (if not hyper-aggressive) players by surprise.
Although more laid back than the Ruy Lopez and not as deep, I find the Italian Game to be also more flexible as an opening for a player at my level, which is "average" to say the most. Though I do plan to expand my chess knowledge to the Ruy Lopez someday, I'll most likely continue to play the Italian Game on preference, and only really consider playing the Ruy Lopez against high-level players (ELO 1600+).
As Black I typically avoid 1... e5 in response to 1. e4 and instead opt for the Sicilian Defense, the most prefered lines of which being Najdorf or the Dragon Variation. However, on occasion I will play 1... e5 (instead of 1... c5) in games against certain opponents who like to play the King's Gambit, an opening which I often like to decline (or rather counter-gambit) with the Classical Defense.