openings

Alright, I'm gonna be pointblank here with you... what is the best opening for white and black? I have personal favorites, but sometimes they don't work out, and I lose. My favorites are the Kings Gambit for white, and the Paulsen Sicilian for black. Are there any openings that are better in different circumstances? I also like the Guioco Piano...

I like the king's gambit and ruy lopez...

There isn't a "best" opening.

If one opening was a clear best choice then everyone would play it. Some openings are less sound than others, but they probably won't lose you the game.

Interesting combination, kings gambit and guioco piano.

i like the qween gambit as white and as for black 1)e4, c5  (forgat its name..)

and yes since your not playing agenst gm or realy good players usualy playing a safe gambit geting your self a good position for a pawn or 2 will do the trick since your oppenent under the presure of the psition combined with the time isiue will probably miss somthing and your good position caused by the gambit will get back more or not less then what you gave up at the begining with the gambit the best agenst normal players is the king gambit very very confusing for most players

The only thing that I dont like about the kings gambit is if they dont take the trap, then they can move their queen out and blow up your position. luckily, none of my opponents have followed up that advantage, and have lost... My fav for black is still the Paulsen.

A really weird opening is this one -

http://www.chess.com/opening/eco/B20_Sicilian_Defense_King_Davids_Opening

is that designed for lunatics?? that is so stupid!!

I find that after 1.d4 d5 2.c4, it's hard for black to prevent white from getting a slight edge.

I totally agree, estragon. Playing the king's gambit has really open up what it is and how it is played. I have seen a few problems with it, such as the queen coming out and putting the king in check early, but all can be avoided if foreseen. With my openings for black, I haven't really seen that many traps or cons, but I am sure that I will if I keep playing them (and I will).

Yes, I recently learned about the king david's opening because I am in this tournament -

http://www.chess.com/tournament/chinese-new-year--2010-tournament

these openings are hilarious!!!

Well, I like your choice of openings, but you keep spelling the "Giuoco Piano" wrong, it's not Guioco. Yeah, that's a great version of the Italian Game, and is my personal favorite. The Paulsen Sicilian always seems give me a solid position in the opening. I prefer Queen's Gambit over King's Gambit for one reason, the King's Gambit weakens the kingside, while the Queen's Gambit obviously doesn't, other than that, they're good openings.

sorry about the mispellings... I know that the kings gambit weakens the kingside, but if they make the rigt moves, you can always change the gameplan before you move out that second pawn...

The Queen's Gambit and the King's gambit is actually very different!
If you tried to play a Queen's Gambit the same way you played the King's gambit you wouldn't get very far! In the Queen's Gambit, White's main claims for advantage relies in the fact that he/she has more space and the restricted light-squared bishop. Often (almost always) White's whole middle game plan is to keep the light-squared bishop passive thereby interfering with the development of the other pieces in black's camp or allowing Black to develop the bishop but getting a positional concession such as yielding the center or an isolated d-pawn. Basically in the main lines of the QGD it's up to white to prove that he/she has an advantage and for Black to prove that he is equal. Often and completely unlike the King's Gambit where white has to exert pressure to justify the missing pawn, (The Queen's Gambit is not a real gambit as holding on to pawn Black will either lose material of hinder his development and lose the pawn later anyways) the play is often slower paced with  timing being extremely important. Even though the Queen's Gambit is slower paced 1 tempo can still be extremely important like in the Lasker's defense, Black always plays h6 before Ne4 because omitting h6 gives white a vital tempo for getting the battery of the bishop and queen on the diagonal b1-h7. Another example would be in the orthodox defense White usually tries not to his/her light-squared bishop before Black captures on c4 thus saving a tempo (though the some-what of a side line (still leads to critical positions) with Bd3 is one of my favourites.) or at least waiting for Black to play c6 because Black at some points has to play c5 and c7-c6-c5 is a "wasted" tempo. 

WOW checkmateisnear!! you gave a great analysis of that opening... maybe I should play it sometime... (I used to like 7 yrs ago).

I bet rich would disagree.

If you play the exchange variation the minority attack will become one of your best friends :)