Minimalistic Repertoire

Minimalistic Repertoire
I plan to use a rather minimalistic repertoire for the months to come. Top candidates would be:

As white: Colle-Zukertort or King’s Indian Attack
As Black: Hippo, Black Lion or Owen
Any other ideas or suggestions?

I like your choice as White. Your Black choices could become a little passive. I answer 1...d6 to pretty much everything. I know how to lay the basic Pirc and the ideas of the KI but not any theory and it has worked quite well against players under 2000.  As White I like playing against 1...b6 and in the Hippo against a stronger player one minor mistkae or move transposition can be deaadly

Thank you for interesting input! The "Black Lion" is a bit pirc-esque ( d6, Nf6, Nd7) but maybe it will be more passive? I suppose most multi-tool defences are a wee bit on the passive side?

The "Black Lion" isn't so much passive, the problem is that it's borderline incorrect. See the book review at ChessVibes: http://www.chessvibes.com/reviews/review-the-black-lion/ .

I think there aren't any real defences that work the same against 1.d4 as against 1.e4. The real 1.d4 player will usually follow up with 2.c4, and that means you get very different positions than after 1.e4.

How about the Scandinavian against 1.e4, and the QGA against 1.d4? I think it's unlikely that you'll have to worry much about theory if you play those, and they're not that hard to play.

I've recently switched to the French Rubinstein as Black with semi-success...and I think Colle is the way to go as White for us dudes that don't have a ton of time to memorize lines and such

I like your idea, it's something I've employed over the board for more than 30 years.

I play as White:

King's gambit

Smith-Morra Gambit

I try to hijack Caro-Kann/French/Scandanavian with a transposed Blackmar-Diemer Gambit.

I play as Black:

Sicilian Defence (Najdorf variation)

Modern Benoni

ands that's my lot (except one strong and solid/passive opponent, I play every few years.... I play London System against him and have scored W0 L0 D2 with this tailoring of my repertoire).

The openings I've chosen are theory "heavy", but then again, I've had quite a while now!

Mason Attack as White: d4 then Bf4

Try the Lengfellner System  as Black: http://www.365chess.com/opening.php?m=5&n=1189&ms=e4.e6.d4.d6

Do you have the book "Action Chess" by CJS Purdy? It's his ideas for an opening repertoire that's quick and easy to learn (if not necessarily the hardest for the opponent to meet). He recommends the Colle and Rubinstein French, along with what he calls the "All Purpose System" against anything other than 1.e4 as black.

Patrik -- I take it this means you are doing OK on your Grob Diet Challenge?  You aren't going to have to play the Grob non-stop after all ?  

Oh, "All Purpose Grob" is my escape route

Your choice makes you look like you would like two other theory heavy openings as Black - Benko Gambit and Marshall Gambit

 Nope...haven't read any Purdy books actually...this was suggested to me by a stronger player (the French)...I already played the Colle...maybe he read the book and got the idea from there?

Much od Purdy's writing are articles merged together in book format. Action Chess is piecewise excellent but I miss the whole picture when trying to learn from Action Chess. Bob Long has a DVD set out (featuring IM Martin) based/inspired on the repertoire choices in Action Chess.

the lion is good it is positonal reti and a3 english are good for white also modern defence king indian too easy to stop and colle d4 d5 nf3 e6 e3 c5 collie is put down

Again it depends on your style. If you believe that the goal of an opening is to achieve a playable middle game position and win on tactics or endgames (which by the way i think works until about 2200) , I prefer more open positions. My own opening choices are just starting to change after 20+ years. I think the Colle/Zukertort is a great system for many. I will even try it in my next correspondence game using Rudel's book as a guideline ( I am a life long 1. e4 player)--the suggestions of the Rubinstein French and Scandanavian are all excellent--I prefer 1..d6 following by  ...Bg7 and Nf6--but that is my own choice, Both of the other two are good solid choices which after some iniital study are intuitive which is what you want. i also believe Alburt wrote a book where he likes the French as a good opening with minimal study. The book is called Three Days with Bobby Fischer and other essays. Also the QGA is solid against 1. d4 --though 1.c4/Nf3 you need something. In general I am not a fan of big opening theory and believe too many people waste time on openings. I also almost never review Opening books for this reason but prefer treatises and game collections--just my thoughts which I am sure others will disagree with.

Thank you all for great input! Mucho appreciated!

Hmm...let me toss my two cents in:

As white: Trompowsky & pseudo trompowsky (not as much theory as the mainlines but white might actually get a decent position)

As black: KID and Pirc! (They both share common structures and themes, and they both give the black player a good chance to blow white off the board if he doesn't know his stuff. You can play the KID defence against everything but 1.e4 and the pirc can cover that.) 

Normally I would advocate playing the KIA as white vs. everything, but playing the same sort of positions all the time with both colours would get extremely boring...plus the trompowsky is just better.

Great suggestions but I might think that those amusing systems might lead to a different interpretation of "mini"

Play the French.  You have choices that fit your style and it is easy to learn.

As white: QGD and Trompowsky

As black: e6 (French or Dutch)