Easiest opening to learn for beginners ..

My point was - unlike this toxic nobody of an IM - I have gone to great lengths to help beginner's and lower-rated players learn the game. 

Are you too slow to grasp such an obvious point? (Apparently.) 

okay ... ive done some research and its called bird-opening lasker variation (A03)

thanks for the help!

By the way, I have gotten many messages (here - I have quoted a few.) and many e-mails. All from near beginner players who thanked me for posting this thread and my article on the WCA website. 

I blocked the troll, <Michael G>, I am truly not interested in ANYTHING he has to say, nor am I interested in the rantings of the toxic IM. (As far as I can tell, he has not written any books, made any websites, nor made any effort to truly help a beginner learn the game. His only area of excellence seems to be in his ability to harshly criticize others and calling Kasparov ... who might be the greatest player who ever lived ... "an ignorant patzer.") 

But my original point remains vaild, the Colle is an easy system to learn and an excellent opening system to teach a beginner. 

As for all the criticisms, they are meaningless and simply do not affect me, nor do they really strike me as being sincere ... mostly there seems to be a lot of trolling on this thread now. (I don't think I shall bother with it anymore.) 

However, feel free to leave me a message or start a new thread. (Thanks.) 

To be fair, you started the Thread and put forward the Colle as the "Easiest Opening to learn for beginners".

It was a thinly disguised way of (free) advertising your lessons on Chess.com.

Several Members disagreed with your views and expressed their own; this is what happens in a Forum!

In light of which, was it really necessary for you to be so caustic and nasty?

And yes, M-G is nothing more than a troll ... and I am beginning to think the same of you. 

In Internet slang, a troll is someone who posts inflammatory,^[2]extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum, chat room, or blog, with the primary intent of provoking readers into an emotional response^[3] or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion.

(See more here, or here.) 

Sorry - you definitely fit the definition, above. OR ... "if the shoe fits, wear it." 

I'll have to take my chances, I guess. It's just hard for me to sit back and watch him treat so many people so shamefully - including some other (higher ranking) masters - just because his posts show up in a different colour.

The only thing I will post here (now) are copies of e-mails and/or messages from people thanking for this thead, my article on the WCA website, etc. 

Thnak you to everyone that contributed something positive. 

I don't think -- I know, from 40+ years of teaching bare-bones beginners -- that the Colle IS one of the easiest openings to learn ... and will help a near-beginner get to a halfway playable middlegame (even an endgame) better than many other openings.

1. I did NOT say that a beginner should aways stick with the Colle.
2. I did NOT say the Colle was the best opening to learn tactics.
3. I did NOT say that a beginner should never learn another opening!
4. I did NOT say that the beginner should avoid learning tactics!!! (In fact, quite the opposite. If you go to my "Training Page," you will see that I have 'preached' for YEARS that the aspiring student MUST innundate himself in a tactical training program ... and the sooner, the better!)
5. The ancient advice that a student HAS to play tactical openings to learn tactics ... simply is no longer true. Today you have the internet, DVD's and books on tactics, computer programs and chess engines, etc.
6. There are many other points to be addressed, but you have to read all the comments to cover them all ... ... ...

My apologies if I seem to be stating the obvious ... but too many people tried to put words into my mouth ... many baited me, and I fell for it as well. (One million apologies for that.)

In summation ... for an absolute beginner ... nothing beats the Colle for the ease of use and the overall solidity of the opening.

This is a nice game that I just played today. Once in a while, I will still trot out the Colle, even against a higher-rated player. The last 10 tries is like 5 wins, 3 losses and two tough draws.

Forgive my ignorance but isn't this nice game just a draw position (56...Kd6) after a bunch of flat pieces exchanges in a 3 minutes game where your opponent lost on time?

I assume you mean "55...Kd6" as the game never reached move 56, and your comment automatically tells me that you need to study your endgames.

Is 55...Kd6 a draw? NO!  56.Kf6 and White wins after 56...Kd7 57.Kf7 Kd6 58.Ke8 and even if 58...Ke6, trying to claim opposition, what happens once the White King gets to b8?  You can't keep the King on c6 or c7, and Kb6 is illegal because of Black's own pawn, and so Kb7 is coming and with it the win for White.

Instead, 55...Kd7! is a dead draw.  Black maintains opposition!