END your 1.d4/London/closed game/positional woes forever with 1.d4 e5!? 2.dxe5 d6 3.exd6 Bxd6!

i hate to shatter your bubble, but it IS easier to attack than defend... ESPECIALLY in this juicy manna from heaven line.>>>
White's the one who will be attacking. The Ne7 line may not be too bad but the d6 line just loses. It's too easy for white. Black gets too many weaknesses. Maybe black can draw with best play but in my experience black slips up trying to defend too much at once and white wins.

5:11 here

if you look at the 2000 stats, it isn't happening in the real world

from 1.d4 e5!? white's results are only 3-4% better at 1800 with a 6% edge at 2000 and so on. that's a long way from REFUTING anything. it's proving the pawns are a liability the more perfect the play and nothing more.

i'm 3000% OK with that. my stonewall stats were hideous because i couldn't do my thing EVER in that abomination of a tomb I still have to TRY and play (hate the staunton!!! arrgh!!! hahahaha!) against everything but 1.e4, 1.g4 and now WHEW! 1.d4.

I think I'll have a fair amount of fun with the albin counter for 2.c4 too. I always wanted to play it, but couldn't get a tactical repertoire suggestion that wasn't (NO THANK YOU!) fianchetto based, but now, I can relegate its less sound buttocks to sideline duties with the charlick as my main line.

there's MORE tactics out there to be had.

tactics tactics tactics!

i think stats bear out that I'm a better than average attacker (because I'm really bad at positional, so i'm not winning many games there)

i play both sides of the blackmar diemer gambit via the scandinavian.

as white, my 1. e4 d5 2. d4 dxe4 stats are 51% wins and 38% losses in 86 games

the 1600-2000 average is 51% wins and only 46% losses in 1.1m games

but as black, my stats are 56% wins and 39% losses in 18 games, even MORE "above average", and I haven't studied the BDG as black AT ALL. i just accept it and see where the tactics or prevention thereof are needed and let the battle sort it out

I can show where all my bad stats go against the french and hypermoderns, where I can't get my attack on.

the more tactical & double edged a game is, the more i'm in my element.

I'm at peace with my positional limitations. fortunately, there's booking up, when a line isn't too complicated to be memory friendly

London System is so underrated

it is not a regular opening and less see it in games

I love to hang onto my pawns. No way in hell im playing this! Time to play my very boring positional kings indian defense!!

Actually the king's indian defense is kinda misunderstood, Its the siccilian defense against d4.

op has this sentiment that openings are tactical and aggressive or they are passive and boring

this one thing makes all these statements hard to read

"book openings are all bad and achieve nothing" from another thread

really? bad??

positional aggression exists??

Positional aggresion is real. You are constantly threatening to make your opponents position worse.

That is positional aggresion.

Or constantly threatening to make your position better.

YES!! A commendation of the Englund gambit! And not the 2...Nc6 3...Qe7 line, which is fine and all, but 2...d6! in the spirit of rapid development!! It was a favorite of mine for many years(With exactly 350 games of 2...exd6 here on chess.com!), until I switched to a more indian-wing-gambit approach with 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 a6 3.Nc3 b5. But if I could telepathically infer that 2.Bf4 was coming after 1.d4 Nf6, then I'd certainly switch back to 1...e5!

Anyhow, @1983B-Boy, I love your enthusiastic writing style, and lots you've said really struck a chord with me! Such as, "even when opponents confuse me, I'm finding just staying calm and developing and/or pressuring will eventually provide me with a juicy target or trap" is just such a relatable spirit! You may be worse off, or even losing if you push the aggression too far, but they're going to have to walk a tightrope to prove it!!

It's correct that its certainly not the best, scientific way to acquire an advantage, and one can conjure up a refutation with proper preparatory analysis, but it's fun! Play the style you find to be most intrinsically valuable, and see where you go! Because at that point, you're operating off of inspiration! Absolutely correct is: "it's an all you can eat buffet of "defend yourself now!" on your opponents." I share your passion!!

I mean, it has swindle potential. Perhaps it's not a refined or elegant way to play chess, but hey sometimes being silly can work out! If you aspire for great chess heights then maybe Englund is a poor choice, but if you play in jest then go for it, right? I think it's fun!

Of course it's a dangerous opening in blitz or bullet, or even rapid, but it can work in long time controls against good players. Here's vs a ~2150 uscf in 110 minutes +10s delay:

Of course, when white plays actively, they'll have a better position soon enough; the Englund doesn't have to prolonged scariness that sounder gambits do. After 1.d4 e5 2.dxe5 d6 3.exd6 Bxd6 4.Nc3, white has Nb5 and Ne4 tricks eventually, despite losing tempo, to mess with Bd6 and pawn structure, or getting to trade queens. And, when white castles on the same side, its often much tougher (subjectively) for black to utilize their lead in development to attack the king. But I feel like it's a fun gambit to try out, and thank you OP for putting so much effort into writing about this! Its been inspiring!

positional openings aren't just boring FOR ME... they're ratings sponges.

here's the last game I played, a very annoying advance variation I just had to figure out, but I'm very satisfied that my accuracy was 82% even here. when sidelines get to be pesky, I'll start booking up.

Ah yes, position chess takes time, but fortunately, 2.d5 is nothing to fear!! And if you want, 2...Bc5 can be fun, since d4 moving to d5 opens that diagonal for you! The idea being getting the undeveloped Bf8 to a open (and attacking-f2-diagonal, perhaps forcing them to play e3 and shut their Bc1 in!), and 3...d6 (bishop outside the pawn chain!) and possibly 4...f5 with a pawn phalanx in the center!! Although 2...Nf6 is of course a nice developing move too!

3...c6 is an interesting undermining attempt! May have to watch out for 4.d6 possibilities, but you can snag the pawn with Ne4! Neat!

On move 4 Bc5 can strike again, both logically and if you're fond of some hope chess! After which, simple developing moves like 5...Nf3 or 5...Nc3 both fail to Bxf2+! Or they play 5.e3 and keep their Bg5 out of d2, thus weakening the a5-e1 diagonal before they castle!!

Although, 6...Bd6 really hurts developmentally. It would be nice to get this Bf8 out to c5 or b4, both being active squares, and play d7-d6, so you can get Bc8 out to say, g4, and Nd7. Also, 6...e4 instead of Bd6 would prevent white playing e4 themselves, and closing the position! Closed positions just feel like such a time dilation into assuming the life of a snail, I feel like you relate! But congrats, those dreams came true later!!

Pretty impressive how by move 15 the king is still in the center of the board! 14...exf3 15.bxc5 Re8+ would've set the king without residence for a good while, but still precariously perched after Bxf2!

Love how the knight ventures over towards the king so quickly, nice coordination with the Q, N, and R at the end!!! That seems to happen in cases of 2.d5; white just loses the dark squares, and even if they close the board, black has undermines like c6 and especially f5!

I always hate facing d4 cuz I think it’s just you getting squeezed positionally by white and you have little to no counterplay I’ll try this gambit out but I always forget that the Englund is an option. And the English is the most annoying one it’s litterally facing a sicilian dragon but a tempo down and facing a Sicilian dragon also ain’t fun hope I’ll use this opening nicely as I worked on my puzzle rating for quite a lot of time and I love finding tactics in positions like finding a beautiful queen sac is much better than winning a long dead drawn endgame and then ur opponent makes 1 tiny mistake imo

OP, I remember you saying something about wanting to switch away from the Scandinavian eventually, might I recommend the Elephant Gambit? vampirechicken on YouTube has a really good series of games explaining how the lines work and it seems very much so in your style of piece play and tactical sacrifices.

I mean against both d4 and the English you can just play a KID setup and then there really isn’t a whole lot of positional play going on for either side. Even the positional lines of the KID are still quite tactical when compared to more closed openings.

An absolute 2nd on the elephant gambit!! A very fun rapid-development line! Bravo!! 👏

And if you ever find yourself with a need for space instead of a need for speed, then, bias I may be, I think wing gambits (there are many, many forms of them) and the halloween gambit are just great fun!

But yes elephant! The e4 cousin of the Englund!!

I have no problems with tactical players playing theoretically dubious but practically powerful weapons like the Englund Gambit. I like to watch them slump as I let them take back the gambited pawn and watch me develop normally, at which point they realize that they don't know how to play a quiet middlegame