Favorite Opening

Hey,

What is your favorite opening and why is that?

Is it a great way to set up an attack?

Is it a closed position opening that gives you good draw changes.

Is it suprising, with lots of traps?

Some other reason??

Please let me know which opening(s) are gold to you!

Ruy lopez. I just like it.

Evan's Gambit. If played skillfully, leads to some very strong tactics for white.

Dragadorf. It' sort of off the beaten path, and the majority of games in it are very exciting

Nimzo-Indian

I play the Goring Gambit since it is a rapid attack and has quite of bit of mystery since there has not been much study of it.  It can compensate for dropping 1/2 pawns and doesn't have to worry about Danish's Shelsher.

Defence I would say King's Indian but I am trying to get to more of Gambit for my whole repitoir just so I can get an advantage and keep people on their toes for when my Sacrifices come.

Could you please explain what the dragadrof is? I have never heard of the opening. Is it a variation on some opening, or just a autonomous one?

The goring gambit is unfamiliar to me too.. Could someone please put on a few games with those openings. It's usually better to visualise them in order to understand the goals of the opening.

Personally I prefer the sicilian dragon variation for black and the italian game for white. Least favorite is the QGD opening I think, because it is played a lot and there is little place for tactics. I prefer openings that lead to some sharp lines (sicilian). Does anyone has some recommendations??

 Goring Gambit is basicly a scotch

I have seen this gambit once in a game against me.

It is based on sacreficing 1/2 pawns to create space and a advantage in development. You need to play it agressifly, or else the opponent equalises development and there's only little advantage left which costs you 1/2 pawns...

italian (evan's gambit) or scotch for white. i like open, attacking positions.

sicilian najdorf or slav for black simply because i win more with those than others i've tried.

White, I play 70% of the times d4, 25% - e4 and 5% - b3. My Opening choice would depend on my opponents rating.

Black, I play Center-Counter and French against e4 and QGD and Slav against d4.

I never play "unorthodox" openings or openings with "traps".

Opening with traps are for lower rated players I think. Someone around the 1800+ normally knows or avoids the traps. And if that happens your probably worse of.

I do change my opening sometimes against high rated players. An italian is very positional and hard to win on that against a higher rated player.

So I tried f4 (birds opening) a couple of times to suprise my opponent, since it is not played a lot in chess. I must say it can be a weapen, but you might say: '' you should trust on your own strenght and not on the opponent''. I do it anyway to see some other positions so now and than.

No matter what white plays, I always open with

1...Nf6 - The Dark Knight Opens

I'm still trying to find an opening that will beat higher rated players consistently.  These Sicilians and Ruy Lopez and so on are not working.

I don't know that an opening variation is going to do the game winning... for the most part.

Yeah, at some point, they all turn into chess games. 

 I fully agree on that one. High rated players usually play openings good enough to provide a good game. There is absolutely no such opening as one that makes you win from a higher rated player (because of the opening). If there was, don't you think everybody would play it??

The problem with your openings is that they are the most played ones. 50% or so plays the sicilian after e4 (40% is possible as well..). So players know that opening probably better than you.

You could try some 'unorthodox' openings like f4, g3, Nf3 or c4, but you can only lose a game on the opening, not win it!!

I like that.  That's true.  You can't win a game with an opening, but you sure can lose one. 

The Torre opening!! It was easy to learn and somehow it seems I catch a lot of folks offguard with it.

Torre???