does anyone know any solid or aggressive openings as black?

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Avatar of Boning-Yang

I know a lot white openings that can easily beat my Elo range (800-900) which are fried liver and Viena gambit for aggressive openings and Ponziani and center game for solid ones. but for black, yeah I know the Stafford and Englund which are decent but they can both be countered in someway, especially Englund. I tried the Scandinavian and Sicilian, but I have a low win rate in Scandinavian and I got cooked in Sicilian, anyone have good suggestions for good black openings?

Avatar of ThrillerFan
Boning-Yang wrote:

I know a lot white openings that can easily beat my Elo range (800-900) which are fried liver and Viena gambit for aggressive openings and Ponziani and center game for solid ones. but for black, yeah I know the Stafford and Englund which are decent but they can both be countered in someway, especially Englund. I tried the Scandinavian and Sicilian, but I have a low win rate in Scandinavian and I got cooked in Sicilian, anyone have good suggestions for good black openings?

The fact that you refer to the Stafford and Englund as decent already shows your inferior opening knowledge. At 800 to 900, you should be more worried about opening concepts and learning stuff that is simple and sound. Ruy Lopez, Closed Sicilian, QGD, 1...e5 against 1.e4, etc. That's what you should be playing. Not those stupid gambits.

Avatar of pleewo

just play 1..e5 and something like the QGD or the slav

Avatar of PurrsianCat

My road was:

400 - 1000 elo: philidor defense, qga

1000 - 1500 elo: qd8 scandi, qga

1500 - 2000 elo: french defense, qga

Avatar of IDUNNOWHY4

Well solid where you are going to catch the people out of book and can play same setup against e4 or d4 is the Owen. It is however not very aggressive unless you can spot when they made a positional mistake. On the plus side not a lot of opening theory and few people play have seen it played against them.

Avatar of disjp
If you just want to catch your opponents in traps, the Busch-Gass gambit is good and not as well known as the Englund and Stafford. If you want something solid to actually improve, you should play pretty much any other opening that is more sound.
Avatar of badger_song

Given the OP's rating I'd suggest playing 1.e4 e5 as black and play the Petrov's Defense. It is a well-respected counter-punching defense; there is a major gambit line that white can play against it that will give black plenty of opportunity to hone their defensive skills. With 1.d4, as other have suggested, play the classical 1.d4 defenses, like the QGD, QGA or Slav Defenses, with these lines, sooner or later you are going to have to learn rudimentary positional chess (pawns) to succeed.

Avatar of darkunorthodox88
ThrillerFan wrote:
Boning-Yang wrote:

I know a lot white openings that can easily beat my Elo range (800-900) which are fried liver and Viena gambit for aggressive openings and Ponziani and center game for solid ones. but for black, yeah I know the Stafford and Englund which are decent but they can both be countered in someway, especially Englund. I tried the Scandinavian and Sicilian, but I have a low win rate in Scandinavian and I got cooked in Sicilian, anyone have good suggestions for good black openings?

The fact that you refer to the Stafford and Englund as decent already shows your inferior opening knowledge. At 800 to 900, you should be more worried about opening concepts and learning stuff that is simple and sound. Ruy Lopez, Closed Sicilian, QGD, 1...e5 against 1.e4, etc. That's what you should be playing. Not those stupid gambits.

closed sicilian for a 900 rated player? QGD? do 900 players even try 2.c4 XD i think you a little out of touch

Avatar of JourneyTo2500Rapid

ummmmm.... benko gambit is pretty aggressive I guess if you like gambits

But for aggressive openings I would go for the scandinavian

Avatar of 1d3bestbytest

The Scandi is fine at your level. For example no one knows the refutation of Qd6,c6,Bg4 setup without early Nf6. This line is easy to play for black, even Karpov started to play it at the end.

Unfortunately it's tactically refuted by sacrficing the d4 pawn and Bf4 but the refutation is simply too deep for most players.

Avatar of Steve-K

Despite never having studied it (probably I will now) as Black I have a 59% win rate against the Queen's Pawn Opening, Chigorin Variation. Perhaps this specifically refers to the Richter-Veresov Attack.

I also do quite well with the Caro-Kann, which I have studied.

Avatar of yen_seua

although im hella low with elo i do recommend the french defense, im only 1000 elo but this opening has genuinely carried me just by knowing what i should be doing with the opening. stuff like the winawer may not be as beginner friendly but the symmetrical and advance have really simple ideas that can be easily learned just by trying to understand it through an engine and then using what you’ve seen and try to apply it to real games

Avatar of pcalugaru

Depends on what you are defining as aggressive and solid.

I play the Center Counter Defense... IMO it's aggressive because from move 1...d5 I'm defining where the play is going, And... IMO it's Solid because it hasn't been refuted.

To throw people off who know I play the defense.

I vacillate between

The Mieses-Kotrc Var 3...Qa5

&

The Czebe Variation 1.e4 d5 2. exd Qxd5 3. 3. Nc3 Qd6 4.d4 Nf6 5. Nf3 g6

Both are totally different.

The Mieses-Kotrc Var 3...Qa5 strives for an improved Classical Caro-Kann, having avoided various popular White lines like the Advanced and the Panov Attack. The Czebe Variation 5. Nf3 g6 has a lot of commonalities with the Pirc Defense.

Playing both... keeps my fellow club players guessing which one I'll essay... and both are complicated enough for anyone under 2500 elo (let alone a weak player as myself)

Avatar of ThrillerFan
darkunorthodox88 wrote:
ThrillerFan wrote:
Boning-Yang wrote:

I know a lot white openings that can easily beat my Elo range (800-900) which are fried liver and Viena gambit for aggressive openings and Ponziani and center game for solid ones. but for black, yeah I know the Stafford and Englund which are decent but they can both be countered in someway, especially Englund. I tried the Scandinavian and Sicilian, but I have a low win rate in Scandinavian and I got cooked in Sicilian, anyone have good suggestions for good black openings?

The fact that you refer to the Stafford and Englund as decent already shows your inferior opening knowledge. At 800 to 900, you should be more worried about opening concepts and learning stuff that is simple and sound. Ruy Lopez, Closed Sicilian, QGD, 1...e5 against 1.e4, etc. That's what you should be playing. Not those stupid gambits.

closed sicilian for a 900 rated player? QGD? do 900 players even try 2.c4 XD i think you a little out of touch

First opening I ever learned was the Queen's Gambit. I am not out of touch. The Queen's Gambit and Ruy Lopez are the only openings that follow opening principles to the letter! Other openings violate principles. Scandinavian moves the Queen early, KID doesn't fight for the center, etc.