Good openings to try

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emmecicubo

Hello, I'm a player with virtually 0 theoretical basis. I soon realized that I couldn't just charge head on and expect to win. So I decided to choose one opening for white, one for black, understand which kind of game style I felt more comfortable with and maybe start to study a little bit from there.

I choose queen's gambit for white and pirc's defense/king's indian for black. Even though I have yet to figure out my style, results say that I win more with black and I loose more with white.

So I decided to change my white opening and try something that is more similar to king's indian's playing style, but I have no idea what to look for.

Should I also try something different with black? Or should I stick with king's indian since I feel comfortable with it?

PS
I wouldn't like something like "you have this fixed 10 move sequence that you brainlessly play", I would prefer something more flexible that allow for different games to develop, so I can learn more. Thank you very much in advance.

ThrillerFan

If you have no prior opening knowledge, the Kings Indian is not the place to start and neither is the Pirc, and the play in those 2 openings are in no ways similar at all.

 

White playing c4 (Kings Indian) and White not playing c4 (Pirc) makes a HUGE difference.  In the Kings Indian, Black goes for an attack on d4.  In the Pirc, the attack is on e4.

 

At your early stage, you should learn 2 openings, and play them both as Black AND White!  Yes, this means sometimes playing e4 and sometimes d4 with White.

 

They are the Ruy Lopez and Queen's Gambit.

 

Those 2 openings follow opening principles to the letter.  If your opponent plays something else, not allowing your 2 openings, follow basic opening concepts.  Control the center.  Do not move a piece in the opening twice unless it is being attacked.  Get castled.  Do not move your Queen early.

emmecicubo
ThrillerFan ha scritto:

If you have no prior opening knowledge, the Kings Indian is not the place to start and neither is the Pirc

Why do you say that? I like how the game develops and in the last 15 black games I had 9 wins, 3 draws and 3 lost, which I think is good.
This for example is the last game I made which was one of my best and I very much enjoyed:
https://www.chess.com/live/game/6260766993

PS: thank you both very much for the answers!

FrogCDE

You didn't win that game because of the opening, but because your opponent gave away pieces at regular intervals. That can happen in any opening.

emmecicubo

Yes, that's true, but considering that I'm still 900 makes sense that games are won by making less mistakes than the opponent, rather than tactical brilliancy or deep theoretical knowledge 

emmecicubo

Yet the results state that I have better results playing with black rather than white

ThrillerFan
emmecicubo wrote:
ThrillerFan ha scritto:

If you have no prior opening knowledge, the Kings Indian is not the place to start and neither is the Pirc

Why do you say that? I like how the game develops and in the last 15 black games I had 9 wins, 3 draws and 3 lost, which I think is good.
This for example is the last game I made which was one of my best and I very much enjoyed:
https://www.chess.com/live/game/6260766993

PS: thank you both very much for the answers!

 

You can hardly applaud yourself for that win.  Your opponent was a raging idiot!

3.d5????? (Yes, 5 question marks)

Even a 400 player ought to know the e-pawn is attacked.  I could see if he played the slightly inferior 3.Bd3, but Come on, Man!

If this is your basis for good play, take up tic tac toe.

 

The Pirc and Kings Indian both have a ton of theory, one NOTHING like the other, and they violate the general principles of chess.  That does not make them unsound, but it means a narrower path to equality and the need to understand a lot more.  Are you comfortable giving up a Bishop for a pawn and some active play that cannot be calculated all the way to the end or to the point that you get the material back?  Can you play 20 moves a piece down?  If you cannot, give it up now and play the ruy Lopez and QGD.  In the Kings Indian Mar Del Plata (I would be surprised if you even know what the Mar Del Plata is - it is not the same as the classical, it is a very specific subset of it), Black often has to be willing to play ...Bxh3 (a white pawn) and also often gives up his a8 rook or sacrifices it for the knight if Nxa7.

 

You got all that?  Didn't think so!  THAT'S WHY!

emmecicubo

Man there's no need to be that bitter, as I said before I virtually know 0 theory and probably summing up online games and in person games I have 100 games total. I only started learning chess 2 weeks ago. I came to knowledge of what a Rui Lopez is just yesterday and of course if you asked me outside this forum what Mar de la Plata is I would say "probably a stripe of see in front of Argentina". But I made this clear at the beginning, so again, no need to be that bitter.

to answer the part of the question that contains "Can you play 20 moves a piece down?" : yes, it happened, generally because of errors on my part and sometimes I won the games, generally because of errors made by the counterpart.

Since even if I was willing to, I wouldn't have time to learn all of the theory before even starting playing chess, I simply asked which opening could fit me better since I was having better results with black rather than white, which is uncommon.

TestPatzer

I agree with ThrillerFan's general advice, which is that the King's Indian (and the Pirc) are not ideal for your playing level.

If you want to play the Queen's Gambit as White, then I recommend the following repertoire:

1) Queen's Gambit (White)

2) Queen's Gambit Declined style (Black, against everything except 1.e4)

3) For your third and final part of your repertoire, you need a defense against e4. I'd recommend either 1...e5, 1...e6, or 1...c6. Choose one (not all three), and strive to master it.

Use an online database, such as https://old.chesstempo.com/game-database.html, to help steer you in the right direction.

Even if you decide to change your repertoire in the future (and you likely will), learning the Queen's Gambit (and the Queen's Gambit Declined) are, in my opinion, essential for any improving player.

ThrillerFan
TestPatzer wrote:

I agree with ThrillerFan's general advice, which is that the King's Indian (and the Pirc) are not ideal for your playing level.

If you want to play the Queen's Gambit as White, then I recommend the following repertoire:

1) Queen's Gambit (White)

2) Queen's Gambit Declined style (Black, against everything except 1.e4)

3) For your third and final part of your repertoire, you need a defense against e4. I'd recommend either 1...e5, 1...e6, or 1...c6. Choose one (not all three), and strive to master it.

Use an online database, such as https://old.chesstempo.com/game-database.html, to help steer you in the right direction.

Even if you decide to change your repertoire in the future (and you likely will), learning the Queen's Gambit (and the Queen's Gambit Declined) are, in my opinion, essential for any improving player.

 

First openings I ever learned were the French with Black and the QG with White.  At that point, figured I might as well play it with Black as well.

 

Now at about 2000, I still play the French, but the rest has changed a lot.

FrogCDE

@emmecicubo, at your current level, the opening isn't making any difference because games are being won and lost, not on strategy but on simple blunders. So there's a case to be made for not bothering about the opening at all for the time being, just play whatever you feel like and work on improving your chess by avoiding making blunders yourself. You probably don't need any opening knowledge till you get to around 1200, and then you should start with the basics, 1.e4 as White, and, as Black, 1..e5 in response to 1.e4 and 1...d5 in response to 1.d4.