Rumo75 wrote
"...Hey, my favourite opening is the Modern Benoni, there's nothing I scored nearly as well with black, no tournament loss against any sub-IM in more than 10 years. Many losing positions, but there's nothing better to wiggle out of them than a Benoni. Do I call Benoni a great opening? Not really, on the highest level it's only suitable as a surprise weapon, people are willing to play the white side even with a minus tempo (e2-e3-e4), and quite succesfully. Some lines are quite a bit fearsome for black, you'll understand that I won't point out which ones 
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Benoni pawn formations are the most difficult to play. The reason why they are so difficult is because both White and Black are constantly at risk of being too early or too late with pawn breaks. That I am reasonably sure you is what you studied and became very proficient at. I know that is what I studied. I also know 400 variations of the Sicilian Najdorf Poisoned Pawn by heart, which today I know cold. It is very satisfying to take an opponent into the tactical maize that the Poisoned Pawn is and be confident that my opponent will make a tactical error in the complications. And, in the end knowing that the very worst that can happen I will get a draw with Black.
@Rumo75
Openings where White is pressing the initiative from the first move are theoretically superior. Assessing the theoretical soundness of an opening based on how many stars is ridiculous. As was posted earlier(post #9 by csalami10 and myself post#20) the King's Indian Attack is good when Black plays ...e6 and hems in his LSB. If that doesn't happen White needs to look for transpositions. Those of us that know what openings to transpose into are the players who have a comprehensive understanding of the King's Indian Attack as an opening. And, are keenly aware of how much utter nonsense stars ratings are.
I completely agree with you. Of course KIA is a good opening. Reti stuff is fine, too. I played it for quite awhile myself, which I wouldn't have done, if my opinion about it was so low. But as you say, some openings are theoretically superior to others. Ruy Lopez and QGD for example are playing fields, where white fights for the initiative from the start, and black holds against it in way that could not be more sound and solid. It starts to sound somewhat ... strange, nicely put, if someone puts his favourite off-beat stuff on the same level with them. Hence my comparison to 1.f3, and someone's going all angry. (Of course the difference in quality between Ruy Lopez and KIA is a hundred times smaller than between KIA and 1.f3.)
Hey, my favourite opening is the Modern Benoni, there's nothing I scored nearly as well with black, no tournament loss against any sub-IM in more than 10 years. Many losing positions, but there's nothing better to wiggle out of them than a Benoni. Do I call Benoni a great opening? Not really, on the highest level it's only suitable as a surprise weapon, people are willing to play the white side even with a minus tempo (e2-e3-e4), and quite succesfully. Some lines are quite a bit fearsome for black, you'll understand that I won't point out which ones
. Sound replies to 1.d4 are QGD, QGA, Slav, Nimzo-QI-complex, Grünfeld. Probably a few more that I forgot.
Donating stars to openings - neither I am a big fan of it, nor the one who brought it up. On the other hand, I saw a really good book which presented a white repertoire against the Sicilian. And the author did just that, as far as I remember Najdorf and Paulsen got 5, Accelerated Dragon and a few others 4, regular Dragon among others 3, 2...Nf6 and 2...a6 not very many. Of course this shouldn't be taken for gospel, but it was interesting to read this grandmaster's particular views, and his reasoning behind them.