I like c6 a lot. It's a really good opening if you want to improve your game. I don't think that choosing an opening or another will change the charachter of the game. Anatoly Karpov used this a lot and he has excellent positional games with this.
Anyway I also play e5 and I like a lot the Petroff (russian game).
So that's just your decision. Anyway Garry Kasparov wrote that begginers should learn open openings and then semiopened and closed.
1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 is ok for black, if he doesn't want to study 3...Bf5 in all its glory.
Funny enough I used to play that line all the time back when I was a noob bullet junkie. I remember I liked the Caro Kann back then but it infuriated me when people played the Advance. I thought after e5 the rest of the game was doomed to be boring piece shuffling. (How little I knew.) So I would immediately start thrusting pawns on the queenside, 3.. c5 being one of the moves I played. If you would have told me back then that I was playing the second most popular move I probably wouldn't have believed you. I hated the Advance so much that I stopped playing it, and I haven't really played it since.
The c3 Be3 Bd4 trick seems to work ridiculously well for white it seems just quickly glancing through my database. You would have to really know that ahead of time though, not something that can be figured out over the board. I don't think I've played against that variation in a very long time.
Black is doing ok in this line as well, e.g.
4.dxc5 Nc6 5.Bb5 e6 6.Be3 Nge7 7.c3 Nf5 8.Bd4 Bd7 9.Bxc6 Bxc6 10.Nf3 Nxd4 11.Qxd4 Qc7
1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 is ok for black, if he doesn't want to study 3...Bf5 in all its glory.
Black is doing ok in this line as well, e.g.
4.dxc5 Nc6 5.Bb5 e6 6.Be3 Nge7 7.c3 Nf5 8.Bd4 Bd7 9.Bxc6 Bxc6 10.Nf3 Nxd4 11.Qxd4 Qc7
Much rather have white and make black fight for the pawn. There isn't a whole lot of games in these lines though so it's probably easy to find improvements for both sides if you studied it.
1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 is ok for black, if he doesn't want to study 3...Bf5 in all its glory.
Black is doing ok in this line as well, e.g.
4.dxc5 Nc6 5.Bb5 e6 6.Be3 Nge7 7.c3 Nf5 8.Bd4 Bd7 9.Bxc6 Bxc6 10.Nf3 Nxd4 11.Qxd4 Qc7
Much rather have white and make black fight for the pawn. There isn't a whole lot of games in these lines though so it's probably easy to find improvements for both sides if you studied it.
That's fair - I might prefer white as well - but by "black is doing fine", I mean that a well-prepared black should be able to hold the position here. In other words, the game will be decided by the better player, not by opening preparation.
4.dc5 e6 is most likely more accurate, e.g. 5.Be3 Ne7 (or 5...Nh6). I believed white is better here, but I'm not so sure anymore.
4.dc5 e6 is most likely more accurate, e.g. 5.Be3 Ne7 (or 5...Nh6). I believed white is better here, but I'm not so sure anymore.
I think black is fighting more in the other variation, but yeah, white can play 5.Be3 Ne7 6.c3 Nf5 7.Bd4 Qc7 8.Bd3 Bxc5 9.Bxc5 Qxc5 10.Bxf5 exf5 11.o-o o-o, the old Boleslavsky recommendation, which by no means is a forced win for white, but nevertheless is preferable to play white.
I think black is fighting more in the other variation, but yeah, white can play 5.Be3 Ne7 6.c3 Nf5 7.Bd4 Qc7 8.Bd3 Bxc5 9.Bxc5 Qxc5 10.Bxf5 exf5 11.o-o o-o, the old Boleslavsky recommendation, which by no means is a forced win for white, but nevertheless is preferable to play white.
o-o, When did you move the g knight?
Thank you everyone for your interest !!