Getting back into chess after years, looking for an opening and defense to learn.

It's been a long time since I've played chess, probably around 15 years. When I used to play, I typically played the Caro Kann. I studied the Tarrasch defense a bit back then but I think I eventually landed on the Slav for my Queen opening defense. Whether those are the right tools for the job, I don't know.

For white I played the Ruy Lopez a lot or just the Italian. I haven't ventured too far off that path since then.

I'm not really sure what type of player I am. While I think I'm an aggressive player, I don't believe the Caro Kann nor the Slav are aggressive defenses. I believe the Ruy is aggressive, but is the Italian? I don't know.

Are there some really aggressive defenses that I should look at? Or should I continue on with the Caro Kann and Slav? Or should I find a different white opening that plays like the Caro Kann and Slav?

No opening is pure defensive or aggressive. It depends on how you (and your opponent) handle them. The Caro-Kann can be highly defensive (eg. Karpovs 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nbd7) or quite aggressive (eg. Nimzowitch, Bronstein and Larsens 4..Nf6 5.Nxf6+ gxf6).

I would recommend that you begin with your old openings. And if you would like to change them, then try to make a change inside the opening complex (eg. change the Slav back to a Tarrash or to a more aggressive variation of the Slav). Try only to change one thing at a time. 

What I did was first go thru the crazy games with the weird openings I played way back when. Then I saw that I did well playing 2 defenses and decided to start by reviewing and playing those. So far I'm having fun so it's been good. -Bill

Which two defenses did you choose?

Many underrated but good openings are:

Danish Gambit

Scotch Game.

Italian Game is also fun to play.

For white Vienna gambit. For black Nimzo Indian defense.

Toldsted: That's fair. Maybe it's the variations that I've played that seem really defensive. I'll look into more of the Bronstein-Larsen Variation. At first glance, I'm not feeling those doubled pawns but I'm sure Black gets something out of it. 

SwimmerBill: Haha. I don't have any "crazy" games to go through but I've looked at a few of the past ones that are on the site (not many) to see what I was doing. Not much to go on which is kind of why I made the post. For the meantime I've been messing around with Caro and Slav again. Which two defenses did you choose?

JackRoach: Danish Gambit looks fun. I'll have to give it a whirl. I learned a bit of the Scotch when I was first learning chess. I don't remember much of it so I should probably take another look.

VishnuGaitonde: Interesting. I've never been a fan of the KD, but I can give it a try. Nimzo looks interesting. I'll give these a shot.

Thanks everyone!

several openings suggestions here...

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell

so way back in the 70's I really liked the games of Duncan Suttles so played modern a lot with strange wing expansions. I also played Schliemann against Ruy Lopez quite a bit too but no one plays the Ruy as white these days and I dont want to spend time playing 4 knights, scotch Vienna,... Sometimes it was OK but mostly not. Playing over my old games I did really well with classical Sicilian against e4 and Tarrasch against d4 and c4. So I've been trying to catch up with the last 40 years of theory of those two. So far so good: win or lose the games have been fun to play.