Least Tactical/Most strategetic opening

What openings are the least tactical in all of chess, and also while we're at it, which openings are the most strategetic. Do those things nessisarily go hand in hand?

yes those go hand in hand, and Id say the english is very stratigical.also the mainline caro kann.

Caro Kann is awesome

for sure, if I wasnt such a tactic-based player I still would be using it. best defensive opening ever that has an imbalance IMO

 Caro Kann Is really awesome

The caro-kann has many tactical lines.  ie.  the panov botvinik attack, the advance variation, and the fantasy variation.

As black, most QG defences at least can be quite solid and strategical, QG for white too, french, caro kann, sicilian kan, english, ruy lopez to name a few. However, with most of the black options white does usually have some sharp options, but many objectively are not as strong as the main lines at least.

correct, the PBA gave me the most trouble when I played the caro. I rarely saw the fantasy variation as it is suspect in my view and houskas book helped me deal with it.

if you want to go strategic in the caro kann you must play the Symslov (karpov) variation.  As a matter of fact any opening can be tactical, or strategic depending on what your opponent plays.

Asking questions like "which opening is the least tactical?" leads me to believe you need to work on your tactics. Chess is 99% tactics, as they say.

Regardless, some openings which require less calculation than others might include:

Berlin Defence of the Ruy Lopez.

The exchange slav, exchange french, exchange classical king's indian.

Classical Pirc with 9.dxe5.

Some closed symmetrical english lines.

Some closed catalan lines.

Petroff with early Qe2

Uhh...yea that's all I can think of off the top of my head. Basically any variation which releases the central tension and/or exchanges queens early is less tactical in nature.

Meh, I see what you're saying Eric, but I definitely understand the OP's plight...

Okay Sgt. Pepper: As a positional and not-so-tactically inclined player myself, I'd recommend 1.d4 of course (as opposed to playing 1.e4). I'd also recommend the Caro-Kann, the French Defense, and the King's Indian Defense. (sorry for the bolding - I'm partial to the French )

However, Eric is still right. I actually read a post awhile back that if you're naturally good at strategy and not brute tactical calculation, that you should try making an alternate repertoire to play with for a time. So whip out the King's Gambit and the Latvian just for fun. You'll obviously get crushed periodically with things like the Latvian, but when playing blitz chess, most people won't know how to refute it. Just pick sharp lines that are fun and study tactics as well - you'll get better in no time. You can do chess puzzles on chesstempo.com or the chess tactics server, which obviously helps as well.

Good luck!

The Exchange Slav is a good candidate for least tactical opening.

I play the french.  and the french is a great balance of tactics, and strategy. 

To some extent he probably does, and in fact that's one reason I went to less tactical openings, but now my tactics are rock solid yet I simply prefer more quiet, slow building openings given the choice. But I would agree that you shouldn't just start with positonal openings simply because you're bad at tactics, as even the most strategic positions can open up and become tactical after winning a pawn, for a good tactical player it might be an easy mop up but for one who can hardly calculate that's actually the point where they lose.

The Smyslov Variation is hardly what I would call a 'peaceful' opening. The main line leads to a position where both sides trying to mate each other - white trying to mate the black king on either f8 or g7 while black develops counterplay using his lightsquared bishop usually situated b7, along with the help of the queen on h5 usually.  Consequently, an endgame with black an exchage down but nevertheless having practical chances arise.