Recommended Openings for Beginners at 1000 Elo?

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Avatar of VvvvV0164

Are there any safe openings recommended for a player at my level? I usually only use London system, but I want to learn more openings that give me more advantages, as well as develop my pieces in a manner that can control the center easily.

Avatar of orrin14

I think scotch or two knights out

Avatar of busterlark
The Italian is really hot in GM games, and it’s real easy to pick up some of the basics at 1000 level.

As black, the Caro-Kann is still very relevant, as is the QGD.
Avatar of tygxc

#1
"Are there any safe openings recommended for a player at my level?"
++ As black defend 1 e4 e5 and 1 d4 d5

"I usually only use London system" ++ That is good, stick with it to accumulate experience

"I want to learn more openings that give me more advantages"
++ An opening gives you no advantage at all. Learning openings is a waste of time.

"develop my pieces in a manner that can control the center easily." ++ Yes, that is good.

Avatar of landloch

For safety maybe Queen's Gambit for white and black. Petrov for black.

Avatar of SimaGuang

If you actually know how to play the London properly, then I'd probably foray into other 1. d4 openings such as the QG and the Colle/Torre and try to find ways to enter favorable pawn structures

If not, I'd probably just switch to e4 now. Based on what you said about wanting to control the center easily, playing a regular 1. e4 2. nf3 repertoire seems to be the best fit.  

Avatar of KevinOSh

What do you play as Black, Yijie?

Avatar of orrin14
NervesofButter wrote:
VvvvV0164 wrote:

Are there any safe openings recommended for a player at my level? I usually only use London system, but I want to learn more openings that give me more advantages, as well as develop my pieces in a manner that can control the center easily.

Opening Principles:

Control the center.

Develop minor pieces toward the center.

Castle.

Connect rooks.

Knights before bishops.

these are the most basic principles to have a good start in developing.

Avatar of orrin14

Pretend that the mountain is the center of the board and the hill is surrounding the mountain.

Put pawns to control the mountain and put knights and bishops to control the hill.

Protect the "flags"(pawns) with the bishops and knights.

Start attacking f7 with a bishop.

Create pawn chains.

Start to carefully move your queen farther across the board.

Avatar of RussBell

Chess Openings Tier List – GMHikaru (complete, beginner thru GM)…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9CwH47r6og&list=PL4KCWZ5Ti2H43-gcoByRnZs5fVR_Lg133&index=4

Chess openings are classified in terms of their appropriateness vis-a-vis player skill level -  i.e., beginner vs intermediate vs GM, etc.  For a given player level, the openings are rated and categorized into six "tiers", from "legendary" to "garbage" (the latter being an unfortunate choice of terms, IMO).  These qualifiers are used in the context of not only the general effectiveness of the particular opening, but also how much so-called "theory" (i.e., documented variations) it encompasses, or how much emphasis is placed on positional versus tactical skill in order to play it well.  So an opening they refer to as "garbage" for a beginner may in fact be appropriate and playable for higher rated players who are assumed to possess a more highly developed requisite knowledge base and skills set.  For each of the openings discussed note also whether the evaluation is from White's or Black’s perspective...

For beginner-intermediate players check out 'GothamChess' (IM Levy Rozman) on YouTube for recommendations and quick tutorials on various openings....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFod-ozimmM&t=103s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qdyik5UwBtM
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=gothamchess+openings
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmbU97iftC8&list=PLBRObSmbZluTpMdP-rUL3bQ5GA8v4dMbT

Check out also ‘Hanging Pawns’ openings videos on YouTube …
https://www.youtube.com/c/HangingPawns

Chess Openings - Ultimate Guide to the Openings of Chess
https://chesspathways.com/chess-openings/

Openings Guides – SimplifyChess.com...
https://simplifychess.com/homepage/openings.html

Chess Openings Resources for Beginners and Beyond...
https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/openings-resources-for-beginners-and-beyond

more resources related to openings, and book recommendations, in my blog...
https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell

Avatar of GMegasDoux

An opening gets you into the game. If you are board and unsatsfied with the openings you play then choosing a different one is fine, just expect a drop in Elo until you become familiar with the positions that arise from them and start to understand what the move effects on the board. Learning openings isn't a memorisation thing it is part of a greater positional understanding. What changes does a move make and why is that a good or bad thing for either player. Same thinking you should be doing during games, you are just trying to reconointer the path before you develop a strategic plan for your games. The opening is the invasion point the strategy is your progression plan in the middle game. Tactics are just ways to achieve objectives.

Avatar of gik-tally

study open games. that's how you'll learn tactics. if they agree with you, you might be a tactician like me, if they don't, you might be more of a positional player or prefer closed positions. i would suggest trying to figure out what kind of player you are and THEN get serious about openings.

 

try browsing them at a database site and see what looks interesting to you.

 

it might be a bit too early in your career though if you're just starting

 

 

Avatar of RocksTheRock

for the black pieces caro kann is pretty good

Avatar of orrin14
RocksTheRock wrote:

for the black pieces caro kann is pretty good

great

 

Avatar of gik-tally

if nothing else, no one even plays the carokann. i see as many, if not more, alekhines. i would think it's too positional for a beginner myself. all i know is i no longer play the scandinavian gambit 1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Nf6 3.c4 c6!? 4.dxc6 Nxc6, because of the "pavnov transfer". playing the carokann doesn't agree with me AT ALL.

 

i'll stick with nice open scalp claiming gambits. one really should take GM advice to start with open games to learn tactics, and then turn it up a notch with even more tactical gambits, many of which perform at +10% under 2000. that is "unsound"! that is DECIMATING (quite literally... look it up) the competition

Avatar of RocksTheRock
1983B-Boy wrote:

if nothing else, no one even plays the carokann. i see as many, if not more, alekhines. i would think it's too positional for a beginner myself. all i know is i no longer play the scandinavian gambit 1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Nf6 3.c4 c6!? 4.dxc6 Nxc6, because of the "pavnov transfer". playing the carokann doesn't agree with me AT ALL.

 

i'll stick with nice open scalp claiming gambits. one really should take GM advice to start with open games to learn tactics, and then turn it up a notch with even more tactical gambits, many of which perform at +10% under 2000. that is "unsound"! that is DECIMATING (quite literally... look it up) the competition

and that’s why you’re  a 1250

Avatar of orrin14

i like scotch variation of 4 knights game

Avatar of GeorgeWyhv14

4 knight's game