Preparing 1. e4

I'm new to tournament chess, but have been playing unofficially on the internet for the past few years. This year (senior year in high school), I decided to join the team, and managed to get a spot at fourth board (my ELO is about 1300 both in real-life, but might not be accurate, given that I haven't played all too many official games in real life). State is coming up, and insane as I am, I'm looking to switch up my openings as white.

In the past, I have played the English in all real-life tournaments, with mediocre results. 100% of my wins have been from tactics, and most of my losses have been positional. The only reason I played the English was to avoid theory. Now, I'm looking to switch to an e4 opening, in favor of maximizing tactical play.

As black, I play the Scandinavian against 1. e4, QID (not KID) against 1. d4, and a mirrored English against 1. c4

As white, I have been reading up on the canal variation of the sicilian (1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d3 3. Bb5+) as an anti-sicilian line to avoid theory, since I believe that an opponent who chooses their favorite sicilian line as black would tend to know more theory than myself, and have been getting good results with setting up Maroczy binds. Also, it sometimes allows a transposition into my favorite opening, the Ruy Lopez.

The problem is 1. ...d5. I dislike closed openings, which were the reason that I switched to 1. e4 in the first place. I've had mixed results with 2. c4, attempting to set up a Maroczy bind, except with the light bishop locked in. I'm looking for suggestions for Anti-French replies as white, looking to open things up, or to transpose into something familiar. So far, I have considered 2. Bb5, 2. c4 as mentioned, and just found out about the Alapin French. How solid are gambit openings in tournaments? (This question applies to the Scandinavian, too.) I know that they're pretty good in short online games, but I don't know how solid they are in actuality.

Off to the side, I'm open to any other opening suggestions, or things I ought to prepare for. Thanks in advance!

As white, I have been reading up on the canal variation of the sicilian (1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d3 3. Bb5+) as an anti-sicilian line to avoid theory

I believe you meant 2...d6. if you are playing this line then you need to prepare a line against 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 e6.

against french you can try tarrasch leading to korchnoi gambit.

you also need to prepare a line against caro kann and pirc. against pirc i recommend trying 150 attack

against caro kann there are many lines, so its hard to recommend anything without knowing your preferences, but i believe advance variation is a bit less theoretical than the others and quite tactical so you might like it.

The problem is 1. ...d5. I dislike closed openings, which were the reason that I switched to 1. e4 in the first place

i do not follow this. after e4, d5 would be scandinavian - which is not closed opening.

as black if you are playing QID then combine it with NID and you will be fine.

My suggestion is you play the Ruy Lopez exchange variation. I've always thought that if White exchanges the Bishop pair for doubled pawns and a missing centre pawn, then it shouldn't be that bad an opening. Furthermore, White has a lead in development and can also castle. 

The Scotch Game is excellent, often leading to wild tactical melees. Stay away from the Four Knights Game and Two Knights Defence, as they're usually heavily locked, requiring deep positional maneuvering to win.

The only exception is the Fried Liver, which is perfect for a cutthroat pirate with a taste for tactical slugfests. 

Now, on to the stuff that Black can use against you to create a locked position.

The French Defence is a solid one. Normally I would recommend playing the Advance Variation to grab space(which usually frustrates Black as his second move tells you right off the bat he's going to counter attack your centre, and if you can cramp his game he'll find it hard to do that), but the Exchange Variation(3.exd5 exd5) will usually throw Black out of the opening book(someone in this forum once termed it the Anti-French as Black will be completely thrown by this move and will usually take him out of the territory of the usual style of playing incorporated in the French Defence).

In the French Defence, after the Exchange Variation, develop rapidly, castle kingside and fight like a demon for domination of the e-file. Maybe it's just me, but I find that Black, in his confusion, often forgets to support his d-pawn, which leads to neat little binds on d5(once the d-pawn has been lured or exchanged off it).

In the Ruy Lopez, if he tries to make a Berlin Stonewall formation(which is extremely frustrating to tackle) by playing the Berlin Defence, play Bxc6 dxc6 0-0 and inject some violence into the play.

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[As a sidenote, always play Nf6 after exd5 in the Scandinavian. 

Thank you all for the replies and wonderful input, I truly appreciate it.

badknight: Thanks for catching the error. I meant 2. ...e6, as in the French. As for the Caro-Kann, I'm curious about simply capturing to create a semi-open e-file and open more lines of attack, in hopes of creating a strong attack in the middlegame, as opposed to attempting to create an advantageous endgame (which is what I think most Caro-Kann players strive for by that selection of opening in the first place.) As you've probably noticed by my choice of openings, I'd prefer to avoid most theoretical lines altogether, so I can focus my time on a select few (such as the Ruy Lopez and Sicilian: Canal Variation).

Username333, I suppose a change of openings would be a precarious idea, but I'd like to eventually become an e4 player regardless, and might as well practice playing 1. e4 in the meantime. (After all, if the work required seems overwhelming after trying it for the next few weeks, I'll just switch back to playing 1. c4) I've always admired how the Ruy Lopez played out, and would like to learn to play it. How does one go about learning theory? I hear the term frequently, but am uncertain how to actually learn it.

helltank: Interesting suggestions. I haven't looked much into the exchange variation of the Ruy Lopez, and probably should look into it a bit. Out of curiosity, how drawish does the game become after the pawn exchange in the French (at the amateur level)?

obviously you should not change your opening completely right before a tournament. opening is not exactly memorization of standard moves, its more like getting familiar with new type of positions, which takes time to sink in. do it slow, and be prepared to lose a few games in the beginning. its better you lose one of the practice games and avoid disasters in the tournament board. practice new openings a lot before playing it in a match board. 

this is how i prepare a new opening.

i) get a collection of games with the opening. go over them multiple times, quickly

ii) be familiar with the type of positions

iii) learn typical ideas and tricks/traps in the opening

iv) play a lot of blitz in the line

v) review the games, but no deep analysis required.

vi) note the typical mistakes you are making.

vii) rectify them, so that you don't repeat the same mistakes.

viii) play games in the same line in longer time. may be a couple of correspondence games with players who are slightly stronger than you.

ix) analyse them

x) pick a favorite line. better to have two lines ready, one safe line and another agressive line.

remember, this whole iteration takes a lot of time.

........

if you are playing 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 then you need to look at panov botvinnik attack. its a good system, but its more of a system for a d4 player. you have to learn to play IQP positions. corrolary, playing semi-tarrasch with black will mirror this type of positions, so you might have a look at them.

also, you need to prepare a line against alekhine.

At chess practice today, I managed to get some practice in with several e4 lines against our school's board 1. Although I feel more than sufficiently prepared with the Canal–Sokolsky Attack, I agree that I probably should stick to my guns and play what I've been practicing most of the season because I doubt that I'd get enough practice with uncommon openings (from my experience, it's difficult to find opponents who play particular less-common openings that I'd like to practice, such as the French or Caro-Kann. My school's first-board is much more of a middlegame/endgame expert, and doesn't play either of those two responses to 1. e4 anyway.).

Sorry, I don't meant to call them rare. What I mean is that out of my past fifty games or so on chess.com, only one has been against 1. ...e6, and none have been against 1. ...c6. I understand that both replies are fairly common, even in amateur play. My entire point was that although they are common openings in general, many people playing blitz are looking to play quick, flashy mates, especially considering the time constraints. (Although day or week-long online chess games are technically an option, I feel as though there SHOULD be an easier way to just get used to the first 5-10 moves or so, and discover common mistakes of both sides through experience). Is there a way to set up unrated blitz games for particular openings, or something along those lines (pun unintended)?

Get a nice chess program like shredder.

chess programs are probably not much useful for learning new openings unless you find ingenious ways to use them to your advantage.

My advice to you is that if you buy a new copy of Fritz 13, this comes attached with quite a few media files for several hours of viewing. Here you can learn all about how to play the different lines of the Ruy-Lopez, Giucco piano, two-knights defence, etc. but it will also tell you how to play stuff that maybe you wouldnt enter into as black but may need to face with the white pieces. say french, caro-kann, or possibly scandanavian etc. The scotch and scotch gambit are some other openings you'll probably need to add to your reportoire. And this is before we've even looked at the Sicilians!

Play what you know and if in doubt stay with the most sound fundamental move you can think of in the game or make an educated guess.

It more important that you deal with the situation at hand.

Slightly Off-Topic : You say you play the Queen's Indian against 1.d4. However, the QID isn't really something you can play exclusively against d4, because it only really "works" against 3.Nf3. Do you also have something prepared against 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3? (ex. Nimzo Indian, QGD Transposition, Benoni Transposition...) 

I think he meant ...d5 in general, eg. French, Caro-Kann...