I love the King's Indian Defense in response to d4. It's easy to play and is a nice, solid opening.
Opening repitoire help?
Sort:
I've been playing the KID as a response, and understand it well enough to play against people at my chess club, but I'm wondering what opening is MOST INSTRUCTIVE against 1. d4? Would 1... d5 teach me more principles?
Also, the KID does not stay an "easy to play" opening once you get out of the club level =/.
With black 1.d4 d5 is a good starting point. One problem black has with queen pawn openings is developing his light squared bishop, after playing alot of games you'll understand this problem, them move on to the indian defenses, if you want.
What are you rated OTB?
My rating is about 1400-1600 (and it varies a lot, I would be probably be 1600 if I could stay focused for 30 minutes). Although OTB I'm probably now at 900 due to bombing the first tournament I ever played in.
MBickley wrote:
My rating is about 1400-1600 (and it varies a lot, I would be probably be 1600 if I could stay focused for 30 minutes). Although OTB I'm probably now at 900 due to bombing the first tournament I ever played in.
I'm confused....so your OTB rating is 900?
When you speak of "instructive", I assume you mean those openings that will help you best grasp and put into practice those principles most applicable to that phase of the game.
Those elements would be:
- space
- time
- development
- center control
- king safety
Elements like material, in and of themselves, are not specifically germaine to openings, but can come into play when trading it for one of those elements above.
Rather than the range of openings you're embracing, in terms of sheer instructional value in the above elements, each has it's strengths and weaknesses, e.g. many open Sicilian lines for white emphasize one over the other.
IMHO, an opening for white where all those elements can come into play in any particular game is the Colle System. On the other side of the ball, both QGD and QGA positions will give the black player insights into how those elements are balanced, while the French against 1. e4 also does the trick.
The colle??
Are you trying to make him quit chess out of boredom?
Mr.Bickly, when I was your rating I played this:
As White:
1.e4
...e5: king's gambit
...c5 morra gambit
...e6 reti gambit
...c6 panov attack
As Black:
e5 vs e4, I studied Morphy games to learn the ropes
QGD against d4, logical chess move by move is the best for learning this opening.
This repertoire was a lot of fun as a beginner as it is quite tactical (all beginners should play tactical openings), doesn't require a lot of memorization, and will lead to lots of different positions!
ericmittens wrote:
The colle?? Are you trying to make him quit chess out of boredom?
LOL, he didn't ask which repertoire would be the most fun to play, but rather which would be the most instructive. And I assume he meant instructive in opening principles, for which the Colle is particularly well-suited. I'd be the first to admit it can be boring, but if you're trying to highlight the importance of center control, development, space, time, and king-safety, it's not a bad choice.
If he had asked for an EXCITING repertoire, I'd have been very happy to recommend the Blackmar-Diemer Gambit as white, Latvian Gambit as black vs. 1. e4, and the Portuguese Gambit (1. d4 d6 2. c4 e5 3. de Nc6 or 1. d4 d6 2. Nf3 Bg4 3. c4 e5 4. de d6) against 1. d4. These lead to very interesting and exciting middlegames, but not necessarily instructive, as the primarily elements you are bringing into play is material versus time/space/development.
With the Colle, you get all five elements, pretty much every game.
Yeah, honestly chuckg99 is more on the ball here, I'm looking more for instructive openings, not that sharp gambit openings can't be instructive & fun!
Ericmittens, my effective/real rating is 1400-1600
My offical rating is 900... due to completely bombing the only tournament I've ever played in.
Not sure I'd be so eager to transpose to the ruy after 1.e4 Nc6. You can try to punish the move order by getting in 2.d4 (and demonstrate one of the cool things about 1.e4, that no black move can prevent you playing a quick d4 with at worst an equal game.) Here I think it is better than equal, whereas the ruy is probably black's best defense, even though it might be torture to play as black.
sstteevveenn, while it may be good to prove 1... Nc6 nimzowitsch defense bad by going into theroretical e4 lines, I don't think there is any sense in learning another opening at my level when I can go into an opening I love, the ruy lopez, instead.
*note: this post has changed a lot*
My rating is about 1400-1600, and I'm reasonably knowlodgable about openings, although I haven't studied them for a year. I want to know if there are more instructive openings then the ones I've been using. I origionally chose the most popular openings purely due to... well... popularity. Again I'm still looking for the most INSTRUCTIVE openings (teach me principles/tactical), and don't care how many games I lose with them as long as I learn.
Unlisted openings I'm simply not prepared for. I'm looking for suggestions on openings in bold
As white:
1. e4
Black: