Help me build a repertoire

don't play the sicillian at your level (and my level), it is very complicated, and you can spend a long term learning it. Play e5 or e6 as black.

So what you think would be good? I would appriciate any suggestions.

I need eight openings. Four each for white and black.

Broken down into two general categories.

1. e4 - positional      1. d4 - positional            If you want a system you can learn in an hour and use for a lifetime with Black is to play the following four moves to get your opponents out of book safely: 1...g6/2...Bg7/3...e6/4...Ne7  I call this the Universal attack. In order to know how to play this system, you must rethink what time is. In Classical Chess, time is defined by how many pieces you have developed. In this system time is controlled space. The more controlled space you have, the more time you have. 

When GM Yasser Seirawan annotated a game by Anatoly Karpov, he made the comment that Karpov was the most "confounding player he had ever see. You will note that he has all his pieces on the first and second rank but stands better!" What Karpov understands better than any other Grandmaster is how to use controlled space.

What distinguishes my system as opposed to an other opening is that I never play d6. You must always play d5 in one move ASAP to contest the White center quickly. Then grab one square at a time and just push your opponent off the board. Force White to declare his intentions when it comes to castling; in one Golden Knights tournament, I played the first five moves in all thirty games, the fifth being 5...O-O. You will note that it is impossible for White to attack in the opening quickly with the exception of an early h4/h5.

The kinds of moves you will want to make are things like d5/Nd7/c5/b6/Bb7/a6/Rc8/Qc7 & and just react to whatever White plays. You will find that a lot of your opponents will go into a long think after 4...Ne7 and 5...d5 because they have never seen it before.     

1. e4 - sharp            1. d4 - sharp

So what you think would be good? I would appriciate any suggestions.

I need eight openings. Four each for white and black.

Broken down into two general categories.

1. e4 - positional      1. d4 - positional            If you want a system you can learn in an hour and use for a lifetime with Black is to play the following four moves to get your opponents out of book safely: 1...g6/2...Bg7/3...e6/4...Ne7  I call this the Universal attack. In order to know how to play this system, you must rethink what time is. In Classical Chess, time is defined by how many pieces you have developed. In this system time is controlled space. The more controlled space you have, the more time you have. 

When GM Yasser Seirawan annotated a game by Anatoly Karpov, he made the comment that Karpov was the most "confounding player he had ever see. You will note that he has all his pieces on the first and second rank but stands better!" What Karpov understands better than any other Grandmaster is how to use controlled space.

What distinguishes my system as opposed to an other opening is that I never play d6. You must always play d5 in one move ASAP to contest the White center quickly. Then grab one square at a time and just push your opponent off the board. Force White to declare his intentions when it comes to castling; in one Golden Knights tournament, I played the first five moves in all thirty games, the fifth being 5...O-O. You will note that it is impossible for White to attack in the opening quickly with the exception of an early h4/h5.

The kinds of moves you will want to make are things like d5/Nd7/c5/b6/Bb7/a6/Rc8/Qc7 & and just react to whatever White plays. You will find that a lot of your opponents will go into a long think after 4...Ne7 and 5...d5 because they have never seen it before.     

1. e4 - sharp            1. d4 - sharp

The Universal Attack is ideal against either the Reti e.g. Nf3/g3/Bg2/e3 or the English because when White plays c4/d4/e4 you always play the standard d5 so that cxd5 is met with exd5 & if White recaptures with the e-pawn, then Nxd5 winds up blockading the isolani immediately. Typically White meets d5 with cxd5 & if exd5, then e5 instead of exd5. This leaves open the possibility of f6 by Black opening the f-file in some variations. You will note that White does not gain a tempo with e5 because the Knight is on f6 instead of e7.

One of the poorer ideas in chess is that a piece is "more actively" placed on f6 than e7. This basically assumes that the Knight moves only once. You will, in many variations find that you can follow Ne7 with Nf5. Is the Knight more actively placed on f5 or f6?

In terms of gaining time, I developed a new concept i.e. If you have a choice between Qe2/Qf3 as opposed to Qe2/Qe3, the latter, in my opinion, gains a tempo compared to the former. Why? The Queen cannot access the e3 square in less that two moves, but White can play Qf3 in one move. In the internal harmony of chess, gaining time is usually desirable so, all factors being equal, tactics, etc. Qe3 would be preferred over Qf3 on general principles.

You can only complicate with lots of pieces so the best way is to avoid hand-to-hand combat immediately as Black because White has the first move advantage. Here is an example of just how wild the opening can get when you are up against a strong Classical player: 1.d4 g6 2.e4 Bg7 3.Nc3 e6 4.f4 Ne7 5.Nf3 O-O 6.Be3 d5 7.e5 b6 8.Bd3 Bb7 9.Qd2 Nd7 10.O-O c5 11.Nb5 Nc8! 12.c4 a6 13.Nc3 Ne7 14.a4 Rc8 15.b3 f6! & now the fireworks started!

I invented this system several years ago and organized about 250 games where the Universal Attack moves were arrived at directly or by transposition into separate openings like the Reti, Bird, English, etc.

Just don't leave weak squares in your wake by prematurely advancing pawns without a clear objective. The key is not to stay in Universal mode indefinitely; your goal is to transition into Classical Chess by opening the center at just the right moment. You will notice in the above game, you never are up against pawn chains so you can forget everything Nimzowitch ever taught about pawn chains. The only pawn chain you might meet is one originating from c3/Na3/Nc2/d4/e5 with pawns on e6/d5/c4. This about the only way that White can close the position, because c5/cxd4 may not give you much.