So for white:
d3-c3 italian or ruy lopez
1: d4 2. Nf3 3. c4
Botvinnik system (c4-d3-e4 with a kingside fianchetto)
Black:
Caro-Kann (4.. Nd7! is very solid)
1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 with a normal slav
Botvinnik system (c5-d6-e5 with a kingside fianchetto)
To avoid being bored: Try the kings gambit, open sicilian and kings indian. It isn't safe, but you got good chances for an interesting game!
I have been watching Karpov's videos on the opening and he emphaises 2 things:
1: The principles of control of the centre with pawn moves, development of knights and bishops, early castling for King safety and to link the Rooks on the back rank.
2: Observing what the your opponent plays, its threats and weaknesses, threats and opportunities, and how you should respond,
I know openings have names, but I do do know if Karpov went into a game thinking anything else other that "principles and flexibility". His sequence of moves may have had a name, but that was coincidence, and I suspect Karpov could not give a stuff.
I think you forgot to mention that the opening has to be flexable or sufficently large to continue to play it for years without getting board. So, at least to a certain extent, you should avoid long forced lines. I am thinking the Closed Spanish, the Caro-Kann, and the French. All three have at least three playable mainlines. Probably should reject the Dragon, the Grunfeld, and the Najdorf too many forcing lines and too many surprises.
If you wind up with any lines for White that give him a (+/=) your opponents need to change openings.
What does "4) Preferably it should not have a lot of detailed options to different positions; it should be solid and reliable..." mean? Are you trying to avoid move orders or complex chess?
Does this "10) It should have been around a long time so people have had time to learn it, prove it and FORGET it; so that when you pull out your opening weapon your opponent is going "what is this ? i recall this vagely from years ago " this gives you a psychology edge." mean you only intend to play obsolete openings? I agree that solid chess never really goes away, but no opening is going to be frozen in time for all eternity, if it is worth anything somebody besides you will play it.
I do not know a lot about chess i am only a beginner but its fairly obvious to my eyes if an opening has the word "Gambit" in it then its not a proven reliable solid opening for players to use "for the rest of their chess careers". Since if at some stage they choose to play high ranking chess then 'gambits' are a losing formula.
Add to this the most theory driven / complex diverse opening in history is the Ruy Lopez why would such an opening be useful to a new beginning chess player who has many other areas of chess knowledge to develop ?
Simply in my humble opinion (and esp. since beginners have no clue of their personal play style; never-lone if they are into attacking chess) since they have little clue how to even DEFEND, how could a 'beginner' get far focusing on the three hugely TN (Therory Novelty) driven openings; - the French, the Sicilian or the Ruy Lopez. Beginners would spend YEARS learnign these openings well and then have no clue about other far more vital areas of chess knowledge because they have been focused on the most difficult openings...
I do not know a lot about chess i am only a beginner but its fairly obvious to my eyes if an opening has the word "Gambit" in it then its not a proven reliable solid opening for players to use "for the rest of their chess careers". Since if at some stage they choose to play high ranking chess then 'gambits' are a losing formula.
Add to this the most theory driven / complex diverse opening in history is the Ruy Lopez why would such an opening be useful to a new beginning chess player who has many other areas of chess knowledge to develop ?
Yeah, only patzers play the Queen's Gambit.
And Kasparov never played the Evan' s Gambit.
@crok
The Queen's Gambit is not a gambit. The Benko Gambit is sound and occasionally played at the highest levels. The Marshal is a gambit and sound. Hell 5. Ng5 in the Two Knights involves Black sacrificing a pawn.
Part of the idea of having an opening for life involves spending years with it and still finding new ideas and things you did not properly understand the first time around.
You say your a beginer, so I think you have a few misconceptions about what an opening is. Your opening will not make you a better player. Understanding the positions you reach will. Openings are not zero maintaince things you learn once and are then frozen in time. You cannot avoid critical positions no matter how you play, if your opening is not sufficently complex to outplay your peers you have outgrown it. The opening is not something you dictate, both your moves and your opponent's moves determine the opening and its characteristics. Your corect that a begining player should not devote very much time to the opening, but if you are going to select an opening that you plan to keep for the rest of your life, I would suggest one of the major openings.
I did not mean specifically every opening with the 'word' "Gambit" is actually a true Gambit. I meant Gambits are GaMbLiNg and Chess games have so many variables why take an extra gamble of losing by playing most 'Gambits'.
No opening is "maintence free" no opening is something you learn and then move onto something else in chess study. I am meaning that for the average player who has (hopefully) a personal life, a job, a family [throw in some friends] exercise and kids and shopping and cooking but wants an opening to play and win in chess that will serve them well for years.
Well the Ruy Lopez and Sicilian are way way to "technical" for 'mere-mortals' to quickly pick up and learn and understand to have any hope of winning chess games without becoming 'bashed-up' from continual loses and abandoning chess to take up knitting.
Any opening leads to new positions and more understanding over time, nothing is maintence free; all i am saying is how can you expect an average person who is busy with life to spend two years getting "good-at" the Ruy Lopez or French. I an just talking about solid openings that people can start using this month instead of next year...
Personally, I feel that it's a poor idea to try and choose an opening to play "forever", especially when the choice is made at 1200-level.
Doing this assumes that your "style of play" will not evolve in any signifigant way as the quality of your play improves.
... and in fact, unskilled players cannot really be said to possess a style of play, unless "thud-and-blunder" can be considered a style.
If you are choosing a set of openings to play during your development as a chess-player, that's fine... but these openings should not be considered to represent a permanent choice.
This is an issue of personnel taste. I fell for the French Defense after playing through some games of Korchnoi, Uhlman, and Botvinnik. So I can only offer the advice to play through a good deal of GM games and see what openings, positions , and endgames appeal to you. As corny as this sounds your lifelong opening should sing to you. You should salivate when someone dares to journey on your homecourt.
Depending upon what it is exactly your taking; please either HALVE the amount or double the DOSE...
That is my point; no player at a rating of around 1000 or 1200 especially if they are "new" to chess, can have any 'clear' idea of their play style or their preferences. So why encourage a new convert to chess learn very heavy theory openings only to find thats not what they prefer 2 play ???
The other thing is the 'age-ole' advice of "learn the clasical 'tactical' open lines of e4", b4 delving into the "positional nicities of the d4 lines". Well last time i looked at the 'rules of chess' they said anyone can play any legal move :) so suggesting new players follow such advice is fairly useless unless they are going to join a specific group where their learning is going is be catered for like a chess club.
And most new players that are adults will most likely not join a physical chess club but more likely play online. Thats why i am suggesting players learn solid simple to 'pick-up' openings that they can come to understand fairly quickly to get playing and hopefully winning, because there are thousands of games available 'now-a-days' and new players will quickly move away from chess to "Tic-Tac-Toe" or other rubbish b4 they start to realise what a useful game chess is to them.
My plan is to learn something solid and build upon for years, not grab sum novelty that builds me to a higher rating faster till solid higher ranked players bash me up repeatedly and say thank you for playing that weak opening and let me give you ten dollars as well to off-set your parking costs 4 coming since you helped my ratings with your 'opening'...
Partly it depends on whether your short-term goal is to improve your results (wins vs losses) or to improve your understanding of the game.
Choosing a specific opening like the Scandinavian or King's Indian Attack and sticking to it will probably give you a better wins-vs-losses score... but it will limit the number of different types of positions that you are exposed to, and for that reason might slow down your progress in understanding the game.
And... i do not want variety kin my openings; i want to learn one opening very well and use it for everything, even things its not designed for.
To me unless you are playing chess for "pure" enjoyment, you should not be 'swapping' openings. If people swap openings you improve your overall general chess knowledge and weaken your understanding of your own pet opening lines.
This is counter-productive when you should be learning your special openings very very well and turning them into a winning weapon. Add to this is my opinion in that you should be not playing your opening so much much that you get bored with it.
Time spent practicing end-games or analysing other amatuer games etc. should give you variety 'away' from your opening; so unless you are just playing chess for 8 hours a day and not really 'learning' chess then there is little need to have time away from your killa-opening...
I will try and 'balance' chess into my life and focus upon making my single openings (i have one Black and one White opening) that i will use always.
Partly it depends on whether your short-term goal is to improve your results (wins vs losses) or to improve your understanding of the game.
Choosing a specific opening like the Scandinavian or King's Indian Attack and sticking to it will probably give you a better wins-vs-losses score... but it will limit the number of different types of positions that you are exposed to, and for that reason might slow down your progress in understanding the game.
T Y ! Blueemu 4 these wonderful helpful comments, i am happy to be thinking on the thoughts you wrote ! i have no idea of my "play style" and other new players will not either. Add to this the Ruy Lopez is an awesome opening for sharp attacks; it is also the most complicated opening in the whole world of chess or at least that is my simple beginners understand of the Ruy.
So why tell a new player to get this amazing attacking opening when they have no clue on how to even truly develop an opening? Plus i have absolutely nil interest in how the openings work and nor will i even start looking at openings besides my own for at least two years!!! i will only be interested in what people are bashing up against own openings with and i will solely focus on how to rip off their heads and hand it back to them...
Thats my aim to win my games and i do not care if sum1 is knifing me with a Kid or trying to squeeze me with an elephant or whatever its name is. I only want to know where its aiming and how to stop it or sneak around it, let others worry about all the opening theory, i have far more important stuff like middle games /end games and analysis to learn.
Thats my basic thoughts, review my games and play better next time; regardless of what their opening is. Sure i will lose but i will also learn...
Many don't play the correct opening. Here is my secret how to choose correct opening.
If normal method - are you agressive player, are you passive, are you positional player etc don't work for you like me, because i was ballanced player.. ask yourself following question
Do you like to build and support or you like to ruin and destroy.
Do you like space and pawn center or do you like fortress and sneaky moves?
Obviously if you are with black and like to ruin and destry then against 1.e4 play french defense (unless white choose exchange variation ofc.) OR play systems with g6 and Bg7 attackin the center with pieces and from flangs - c5 also works that way.
If neither you don't like that and you don't like having center pawn because is too tactical - simply choose 1..d5 or 1...c6 for strong defense.
On other hand if you have to build and support then play for the center with e5 and with plan for example c6 and d5 sometime etc. That will help you a lot for your middle game plan, openings are importhant.
But in general in every single opening no mater how agressive or defensive it is , it can have shortcuts to other extreme, but you have to be quite advanced player to understand very good openings and to be able to switch from one to another, typically this is 2300+ level chess.
But for now if you choose correct system for you, you should not have problem with openings untill expert/master level.
By the way gambits should be playable by people who not want to improve in chess and having fun or from those who are already advanced enough to see complicated tactics and to adjust to dinamic of the position and know lots of theory.
Ok; we want a chess opening that gives us a winning edge at the start of our chess game; particularly despite whatrever our opponent throws back at us.
Well :) life is not like that; we might want something but we are mere mortals and do not often get our wishes granted...
So, what we NEED from our chess opening is simple.
1) We need somtething we can build upon after learning the opening basic main line moves in less than a day,
2) It must not have a lot of sudden surprises from new and often found sharp lines that give others who have more study time an edge just by keeping up with new ideas always,
3) It should incorpate all the established guidelines of the openings principles such as developing co-ordinated activity and not exposing unnessary weaknesses,
4) Preferably it should not have a lot of detailed options to different positions; it should be solid and reliable,
5) Hopefully it should match your personality and style so you will work on this system for life instead of a few months and then swapping into another unknown opening,
6) It should not be regularly played "fashionable" openings means every one is thinking upon new move orders and how to use these openings; you do not want to play to others strengths,
7) It should not be part of a MegaGrandMasters (MGM) openings, MGM's have 'groupies' that religiously follow their ideas and even worse what MGM's play gets published ! you do not want this you want stuff others do not suspect,
8) An opening that is solid enough that SuperGrandMaster's (SGM) and MGM do occassionally experiment with it in high ranked games, this proves it is solid enough for these people to risk their rating, money and ruputation upon. So this generally means the rare and very rare openings are out, just because Larsen could win with 1. a4 does nothing to prove this is a solid nor reliable nor repeatable opening,
9) Whatever you choose will have certain weaknesses, but it should not have an easy obvious weakness that defeats it and makes your whole opening a bust...
10) It should have been around a long time so people have had time to learn it, prove it and FORGET it; so that when you pull out your opening weapon your opponent is going "what is this ? i recall this vagely from years ago " this gives you a psychology edge.
Above all; stay with your opening, do not swap openings unless a professional chess coach tells you to...
Learn it, play it and adapt to the common things your opponents throw at you...
Never try for rarely seen surprise weapons as your regular openings since they will help you reach a higher rating faster and then you will have wasted your time learning openings that serious players know how to crush; thats why you should re-read and follow my points mentioned above about the things your openings need to consider...
More on openings at HobbyDeck.com ; thankyou :)