Looking for an opening

well, to master yes obviously it takes time

but to be able to play it not at all, that takes comparable amount of time to the other three

I personally think that beginners should never play e5. There are just too many tricks and traps for white. Of course it can be very fun if you learn some gambits like stafford or latvian(It's actually the most fun defence is you do this), but... I think scandi is the best thing a new player can play. It allows to not blunder the game from the beginning and improve in the middle and endgame. I could be wrong, of course.

never is too strong a word

The trick is if you try to force an "open tactical game without (!) the need to study openings deeply and actually spend time understanding opening>middle games ideas", which involves pattern memorization at the very least if not line memorization which is debatebly benefitial for beginners at best...

what happens is you will either get bad positions, or actually (and what happens most often) is the opponent will understand what you are after and force a positional, closed game.

Conclusion:

Contrary to what you think: Maybe advise him to actually play the London or d3 Italian and improve his positional game, rather than looking for ways around that... Play 15+10 or 30 min games...

Positional just means tactics will occur later in the game - if he understands that - he might become very good..

Also it doesn't matter how much beginners study some opening - what they need is actually to understand you can't play the same moves against everything (Obvious? not to everybody) Just help him understand it's OK to memorize 1 move of each opening, rather than lines/deep ideas in any specific one.. that's a good start

Example:

1. e4

against: ..1. c6, d6, b6, g6, and e6, and Nc6 I go... 2.d4 grabbing the entire center.

against: ..1. Sicilian I go 2.c3... Alapin Sicilian, d4 at some point, normal development..

against ..1. e5 I go 2. Nf3 and go for Italian with d3 or if Black goes Petroff d4 preparing to push e4-e5 if takes...

against ..1. Nf6 I go 2.e5 attacking the Knight..

If you get surprised in the opening completely that means maybe opponent is playing some random stuff and maybe he's very good watch out..

This more "global" approach which may seem obvious to you isn't obvious to U800 beginners at all...

So rather than looking for "an opening" try to bring up his level in all openings... And perhaps show him some nice classic game in the King's Gambit to show how knowing an opening like a Master is a means to achieve your desired middle game (again, this very concept of why we select openings seems obvious to you but to beginners it's not so obvious... To them it may seem like an annoying memory contest)

But basically studying a single/very few specific openings alot or playing a rich opening like the Pirc/KID as a system won't help him that much...

And also... for beginners it's not so important.. He could just improve his already strong side (tactics and endgames) by doing 20 mins of tactics a day and studying a master game/endgames every other day.. having this imbalance in your play is essentially good...

Players of his or your level dont need openings

to play a game of chess, you must play the first moves

the first moves are called as the opening

thus, by the weirdest logic ever, the opening is required for the game to even start! 

(slight joke here)

You dont need to learn openings is what I said

i know that

people apparently dont get humour here i guess..

I heard this statement a lot of times, but still can't understand why. Why risk getting destroyed in first couple moves if you can do it yourself by memorising some lines?

Cos nobody of ur level can capitalise, they arent good enough. Ur level still blunder pieces

A person might see combinations easier than understanding positional aspects of the game, but when rated 1000 everything needs improvement. Good tactics are found from good positions generally and not the other way around. Understanding why a move is played instead of merely just playing it because it appears good goes along way.

But at 1000 openings start to shine. If you know a good opening you can create a "buffer zone" advantage on move 10 which helps you in the middle and endgame. If you blunder something, you don't lose, you just drop to equality or even a slight advantage.

Pick some openings even if it is the KIA and KID and run with them create your path and understand why the move is being made, I still win with the Englund Gambit at 1900 level as black, because I understand it better. I agree with having a base point to work from, but the opening is not going to solve all the issues of playing strength

How the hell are you worried about all that playing e5 and then only playing two responses in the Caro-Kann? You have to be worried about the Advance, Mainline, Exchange, Two Knights, Panov, Accelerated Panov Toikannen Gambit, Fantasy, Breyer, Nf3 Breyer, Breyer ICBM, and whatever nonsense the lower level players throw at you. 
Meanwhile in the e5, first of all you could just pick up the Petrov or even the Philidor against 2. Nf3 and then all you have to be really worried about is the Bishop’s Opening. Even if you don’t do that though just learn the Giuoco Pianissimo, the Malaniuk Scotch, and the Berlin Spanish and you’ll be fine with very little theory but a great position. Against VG, KG, and DG just learn the d5 declined variations. In Vienna and Danish it’s literally the best way to play as Black, and in the King’s it’s the best countergambit and a solid way to play. e5 at lower levels is really not that hard to play as Black.

Can you tell more about d5 against danish please?

You make 1 e4 e5 sound so easy and rewarding to play with from the Black side to

I mean what is there to tell? It’s pretty simple, you just play normal Scandi stuff except there aren’t as many center pawns so Black is doing better than usual.

Just play the Petrov bro

It's boring, but it's simple and you don't really need to learn anything aside from the Steinitz attack, the main line, and the Cozio, all of which don't take too much time to study

Also sometimes you can get aggressive

Because if you just put most of your study time on openings you will reach a level - say 1400 for example... And then you will be +4 out of the opening and blunder it away 80% of the time.

That is a bad feeling... Because +4 out of the opening should translate to maybe 80% win rate, not 20% win rate... But if your opponents have better middle game skill and endgame skill than you - the game will be decided by them.

Also some opening study can be deep... Chessable (memorizing lines) is aimed at 2000+ players mostly... As a beginner/intermediate you need to work on understanding opening ideas and goals, exploring middle game patterns that arise from this opening- through analysis of your own slow games... from "just memorizing a couple of moves" mostly you get from that is reach positions that you are better but can't actually handle... Or a desire to memorize more and more moves to have that fake feeling of security across more of your repertoire...