Easiest opening to learn for beginners ..

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!

Since you're all so bloody clever why are you all keep losing? 1...g6 doesn't perform as expected?