I will review your openings and help you improve them(any opening)

I am 1700 rated on chess.com rapid with over a thousand games played.  Right now I play the Najdorf Sicilian and Nf6(QGD, KID, Nimzo) with Black.  I play d4 opening with white and aim to get a Queen's Gambit.  I am doing free of charge to both help newer players and get more practice studying openings.  Feel free to ask questions or contact me via DM on chess.com.

Cool, I sent you a message

Sorry I can't actually see wh as t you commented, please post again

Okay, thanks for letting me know

We need to find a way how to limit streamers spreading misinformation. If peeps are still focusing on openings, they won't be improving much.

You played an english against "Sqpdbv". It is nice that you won a piece in the opening. Where they started to go wrong was when you moved your c-pawn to your opponents side of the board. You play c5. The whole point of c4 openings is to control the incredibly d5 square with a flank pawn. Also typically to take on d5 if Black ever plays pawn to d5 themselves. By playing c5 you caused 2 things: weakened the c-pawn and made it almost impossible to defend the pawn. The other thing is now Black is able to play d5 with no real issues. In general it is ideal not push your pawns past your side of the board(4th rank as White/5th rank as Black) while still developing in the opening. It almost universally makes the pawn structure more vulnerable pawn breaks. There are openings such as the Advanced Caro Kann and Advanced French where you do advance a pawn early on for specific reasons. Those games are fairly sharp and once side concerns themselves with an assault on the king, the other side is worried about their Queenside and center not getting destroyed before they can checkmate. I have experienced winning and losing with white in both of these openings.

I'll try to get back to you on the Ruy Lopez and Reti if things don't get too hectic. However, I will say in my experience I recommend one main opening with white, and 2 openings with Black(one against e4 and one against d4). But I would be lying if I said I haven't been guilty in the past of playing like 8 different openings with each side depending on my mood or "what I felt like playing that particular game" lol.

randomchessguy52: Oh that’s actually a good question. Okay so Nf6, g6, b6 are out of the question, and e5 blunders a pawn on move 1 of course. The only viable choice is c5 if you want to deny your opponent the pleasure and comfort of playing a “d4” opening. You have to accept that as Black, you can’t make it IMPOSSIBLE for White to play d4. However, by playing 1…c5 you discourage White from playing d4. This because if they do decide to play d4 anyways they won’t get a familiar d4/London/Queen’s Gambit structure, instead they will get a position where your pawn is already on c5 attacking their pawn and you have yet to commit any central pawn of your own.

The computer recommends taking on d4 immediately, I agree because in most openings Black is successful if they can play “d5”. If Nxd4 d5 immediately, if they respond to this with c4! play dxc4 and you will have a good position and can develop with moves like Nf6, e5, Nc6, Bb4+, and short castle.

If after cxd4 Qxd4 then play Nc6 followed by d5. Once again if white responds with c4 you can choose between playing dxc4 or Nf6. This position can get tactical fairly quickly due to how open the position is(no pawns occupying d4, e4, or e5). You have to figure it out from here or maybe even earlier because very few of White’s moves were “forced”.

The position is quite equal with dynamic chance for both side and you still have yk “play game” from the end position, but I know as a d4 player I wouldn’t want to play this weird tactical position(White out of book on like move 3 at our level and their knowledge in the London, Queen’s Gambit, or King’s Indian is of minimal use here)

Let me know if you have any follow up question or any issues you come across with this opening

Sure I'll play some games with you, it hopefully should be good practise.

Pip king, you sure you have more than enough knowledge about some openings? Like some pretty deep knowledge? If yes then I would also like to get some of my doubts cleared.

My pleasure, please let me know how your games are going with this new system

there is one problem with playing c5 against 1.Nf3 it allows 2.e4. You are now committed to playing a Sicilian. but white chooses whether it is an Alipan, a Smith morra, a closed or open system. you are better off as black to play 1.Nf3,Nf6 and make white commit to the structure. he can't play e4. he can play d4 or c4, then you can play c5 if you wish. it will be a Benoni or a symmetrical English. if white plays 2.g2,... you can play c5 if you want a symmetrical English. Or you can play e6 and go into a Tarrasch, a Modern Benoni, a Nimzo, a QGD, a semi slav, and maybe even a QGA with a pawn on e6 instead of bishop. you have to understand transposition after 1.Nf3 by white. Kroichnoi was a master of it.

depending on what each side is willing to allow and disallow 1.Nf3,Nf6 can transpose into anything except variations that play f4 as white or f5 as black until the either or both Knights move. if the only reason for playing 1.Nf3,c5 is to avoid d4 openings at all costs then it is a perfect plan but 1.Nf3,c5 does commit black to a Sicilian if white wants it.

Okay, I have looked throught both your last 10 Rapid games and your last 10 blitz games. To my surprise I didn’t see a single French Defense played by you or your opponent. I noticed you play 1. e4 with white in 95% of the games yet you didn’t come across a single French Defense or Sicilian. Aside from 85% of your games being e4 e5, you came across 1 caro kann, 1 petrov, and a few Scandinavian Defenses. I don’t recall seing an “Indian-based” set ups; Majority of your games were in the Ruy Lopez and Italian. This information is valuable to note because based off of the sample size almost nobody plays the French or faces against the French or Indian Games. The French Defense will be the opening they are least prepared for most likely and come across it 1-2 times out of 20 or so games.

Indian Games: The modern approach to chess of rather than directly occupying the center with pawns, to focus on piece development and look to undermine the center. I only recommend playing these openings if your are comfortable in defending attacks on your King and or dealing with your opponent having a space advantage.

The opening I recommend and like the most but the computer hates the most is the “Nimzo-Indian”. Here is the main line: 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4! From here White plays a3, Qc2, or Nf3. Black gives up the dark-squared Bishop early on in exchange for doubling Whites pawns on the c-file and later looks undermine them even further with c5! ther doubled and sometimes even tripled pawns on the c-file many times proves to be a liability and limits whites productivity on the Queenside. White accept the double pawns, arguing Black has wasted time capturing the Knight in the opening and made a large risk giving up the dark squared bishop early on. Many times the dark squared bishop for Black is a Key defender of the position. Also White, now has the threat of reaching an endgame where they still have the “bishop pair”.

side note: the computer underestimates Black the King’s Indian Defense(KID) the most due to Whites space advantage on the queenside in specific variation like the “Mar del Plata”. The King’s Indian has lost popularity amongst top level play due to both the Bayonette Attack Variation and the rapid rise of super computers that take the sting and the magic out of the King’s Indian. In my experience it is perfectly playable at our level, I have over 200 games in the King’s Indian Defense) and feel it is a challenging and complex opening for both sides(Black and White)

The French Defense: 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5! White can play exd5, e5, Nc3, or Nd2. “exd5” isn’t a traditional French-like position at all so I won’t cover it right now. Nd2 is an uncommon line that I doubt any of your opponents will play against you so I won’t cover it either. We will look at the 2 most common moves; Nc3 and e5. e5 is called the “Advanced French”, it is an attempt to gain as much space as possible in the center, it locks and commits the pawns structure. After this move is played there is almost no question; White will seek to develop and launch an attack on the Kingside (which is why sometimes in the French I opt not to Castle at all) & Black will play to undermine White’s center while also launch their own assault on the Queenside.

Nc3 is a positional approach in my opinion, rather than locking the position and committing everything many times sacrificing pieces to launch an attack on the Kingside…White instead opts for a semi-open position while still insisting and keep Black’s symbolic pawn structure of having a the pawn on e6. While “e6” in it of itself is a useful move and provides more protection to the f7 pawn, the downside to playing the French is your Light-squared Bishop struggles to find a useful purpose and is block in by the e6 pawn. The reason why I am not going over 3. exd5 is because it is a symmetrical pawn structure and Black no longer has the issue of the light-squared Bishop being blocked in. In addition to this according to the Lichess database Black wins just about the same amount of times as White, and for the Lichess Master database Black wins more often than White after 3. exd5 exd5.

Bayonet Attack(King's Indian)

Samisch Variation(If you are not comfortable playing this with Black, then I don't recommend the King's Indian)

4 Pawns Attack(if you aren't comfortable playing this as Black then I don't recommend the King's Indian, this set up with White is more popular than you think)

Nimzo-Indian

Nc3 French

Exchanged French

Advanced French

@pipking would you like to check and review my games? Thanks

You are correct, White can transpose into Sicilian. However, by playing Nf3 white doesn't get the ideal Alapin, Smith mora, or the Closed Sicilian. By playing Nf3 White transposes into the open Sicilian, in my biased opinion White plays Nf3 and then e4 because they are not fully committed to and confident in e4. The Sicilian is actually my least favorite opening to play against when playing e4 as White. Also, my strongest openings are the Sicilian, the Petrov, and the Giocco Piano Italian. For you "randomchessguy52", I recommend learning 2. a6 Sicillian because it makes White’s most natural move; 3. d4 a mistake. Here’s why: 3. d4 cxd4

4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 e5 6. Nf5 d5!(Black is better on move 6, in Lichess Masters database Black win 71% of the time, and the players database Black wins 62% of the time with the position played 50,000 times). The reason why Black is better in this position is because the successfully equalized with d5 and as a result both the pawn on e4 and the Knight on f5 are weak. Tempting moves like Ne3 to control the d5 square lose immediately to d4 forking the 2 knights, exd5 results in Bxf5 winning the Knight, and Nxd5 results in: Nxd5 exd5 Bxf5 or Nxd5 Qxd5 Qxd5 exd5 Bxf5 once again winning the Knight on f5. On move 7 regardless of whether Black plays Bg5 or Ng3, play d4 and now you have taken a lot of space in the center and Whites Knight is forced to move to a less optimal square in order to not lost any material. My issue with the Sicilian when I first started playing 1. c5 was having not clue what the main ideas were and how to avoid getting a bad position out of the opening. In the Sicilian the key square is the d5 square, typical when White castles Kingside Black fights to control the center, when White castles Queenside Black tries to play d5 as quickly as possible in order to open up the position and slow down White’s attack. This is literally where the similar opening “Accelerated Dragon” is about accelerating development and playing d5 sooner because they never spent time with moves like e6 or d6.

Black plays g6 and Bg7 first because if Nf6 first, White can and should play Nxc6 bxc6 e5 and the Knight will be missplaced and forced to move to a square that it doesn’t belong on. However after g6 and Bg7, now if White play the same sequence: Nxc6 bxc6 e5 White is still fine, but White has over extended their position by playing e5. Now after the Knight moves back to g8 the e5 pawn is immediately under attack by the Bishop on g7, White has to burn a move to protect it.

If you are able to remember most of this 2. a6 line: 2. e4 a6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 e5 6. Nf5 d5…follow by 7…d4. You can basically not have to study anything else about the Sicilian and should be fine in the opening for most of your games against people at your level. In the final position after Ke7 Black wins 71% of the games according to Lichess.org player database. Sure your King is in the center but the position is closed and your King is well protected, just trade off White's Knight and keep forcing piece trade to simplify to an endgame up a piece and your should be fine.

btw I discovered this clever 2. a6 line from previous “Chess.com Coach of the Month” winner; IM Kostya Kovutskiy. Here’s semi-helpful yet complex video on explaining Sicilian move orders and setups: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0Z4t2Qx5e8&t=1488s