Try the Black Knights Tango. It is a Nice and active opening without much theory, this is the mainline: 1. d4 Nf6 2. C4 Nc6! 3. Nf3 e6 4. Nc3 Bb4 and Black plays Bxc3 d6 O-O e5 Ne7 Ng6 Nh5 Nhf5 and f5 fx
Strong tactical response to d4?
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bresando wrote:
Marcus-101 wrote:
Yeah, I was going to play the Tarrasch, and I bought a Grandmaster Repertoire book on it, but I realised it is so rare for Black to get a typical IQP position (which is what I wanted) that is really wasn't worth learning all the theory to it (which was also a lot more than I thought).
I definitely disagree!! If you play the tarrasch you get IQP positions all the time. In the book they give a lot of space to the Bg5 c4 line since it's very challenging, but in all the other (and far commoner at club level) lines you get typical IQP play. And even against Bg5, you can diverge from the c4 lines and play the old main line cxd4, with a typical iqp position. You can count on getting IQP positions in 95% f your games if you really want to.
I will take another look at the Tarrasch then, but if the Grandmaster Repertoire book is anything to go by, it is too theoretical for my liking..
Marcus-101 wrote:
bresando wrote:
Marcus-101 wrote:
Yeah, I was going to play the Tarrasch, and I bought a Grandmaster Repertoire book on it, but I realised it is so rare for Black to get a typical IQP position (which is what I wanted) that is really wasn't worth learning all the theory to it (which was also a lot more than I thought).
I definitely disagree!! If you play the tarrasch you get IQP positions all the time. In the book they give a lot of space to the Bg5 c4 line since it's very challenging, but in all the other (and far commoner at club level) lines you get typical IQP play. And even against Bg5, you can diverge from the c4 lines and play the old main line cxd4, with a typical iqp position. You can count on getting IQP positions in 95% f your games if you really want to.
I will take another look at the Tarrasch then, but if the Grandmaster Repertoire book is anything to go by, it is too theoretical for my liking..
It's a GM repertoire book: it's supposed to show you how to equalize if your opponent is a GM who prepared a !! computer novelty on move 25, and to cover every possible rare sideline. The result it's bound to be theoretically heavy regardless of the opening :P
In practice the opening is not really theoretical in my experience, as long as you know where to put your pieces in a IQP position the play is very thematic. Very rarely theory consists in strange looking moves you would never find over the board, apart for the Bg5 c4 and 6.dxc5 lines. In the first one you may need to find only moves, but just if your opponent plays very aggressively ; the second is tricky but fortunately impopular for now since it was considered rubbish before the book came out, and most white players have not yet heard of it. There are also a couple of tricky lines here and there (well, it's the same for every opening), but in the vast majority of the other lines you can play by heart witout knowing any theory if you have a feel for IQP positions. Of course i'm talking about club level play, if you're an IM who faces opponents with great knowledge and technique on a daily basis then yes, you probably have to remember that in line xyz you have to play Bg4 before Re8, white in line abc it's the opposite otherwise you're slightly worse, but at our lever it's not really a vital difference
That's very interesting, and if I had more time I think I would try learning the Tarrasch. But, unfortunately, the tournament is tommorow ;) I think I might just play the stonewall, and accept the passive position the comes after g3. However I might play the QGA, which is quite solid and although maybe not quite as tactical as I would like, should be okay, as I hav studied and done the analysis on it before. It depends how many games I play with it tonight...
You should definitely not try a new opening tomorrow :P It takes at least a month (to me at least) to get a good feeling for a new variation.
Yea, on second thoughts the QGA is a bad choice.. I think I will just play the Stonewall and hope that white does not play g3... Chances are my opponents won't even play d4. I think I will learn the Tarrasch though, you've given such good reasons for me to play it, and I want to give it a go!! Thanks for all the advice from everyone :)
The slightly unusual lines that are not complete garbage and with the lowest draw % in my database are:
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 c5 4.d5 b5
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 c5 4.d5 exd5 5.cxd5 Bd6
I wouldn't really reccommend playing this way though...
Snake Benoni and the Blumenfeld? That's very interesting, because in the past I have played both of those variations ;) Not sure I understood them very well though, back when I was a weaker chess player than I am now.. but might take another look at them :)
Darn my list of openings I want to try against d4 is get longer and longer... now its at Tarrasch, Budapest, Blumenfeld, Snake Benoni ;)
Marcus, in your original post, you have white making an inaccuracy in move four. If black plays the Slav, then any white d4 player worth their salt should know that they need to play 4. a4 right away to prevent your line, otherwise it's not guaranteed that they are getting the extra pawn back.
Watch out for your rook on a8 if you're going to desparately try to hold onto that extra pawn! I have taken out many a patzer who tried to hold on to extra material instead of developing the knight to give the rook room to run.
You could also try the Dutch Defence. It's imbalanced and has black immediately looking for a counter attack, it looks like the d4 version of the sicilian. I don't know about theory, but it's likely your opponent is going to know nothing about it. I've always liked the Dutch Stonewall 
Ha....Ha.... that's the opening I was trying to avoid... I have learnt the stoewall but I find Black's position very passive after white plays g3
Oops, I didn't see that part in your OP XD
Yeah, it is a little defensive, but I guess it suits me well. There are other very different lines in the Dutch that you might like more. Try not to close up the center with your pawns, perhaps?
The Stonewall is the best option against the g3 lines though. Therefore I can't really avoid it.
Marcus-101 wrote:
The Stonewall is the best option against the g3 lines though. Therefore I can't really avoid it.
Ah. It's been a while since I used or studied the Dutch 
pfren wrote:The Benko is definitely not a sharp opening- rather the opposite. Active-yes, but the sharp variations in it are really few.
All the White piece configurations confuse me. Theory would just make things worse. :/
I've always liked to play the Queen's Gambit accepted against 1. d4. A lot of d4 players (at my level at least) don't deal with the QGA very often and often don't know how to hold the pawn, especially if you play something unorthodox and ugly like 1. d4 d5 2. c4 dxc4 3. e4 Be6!? to really try to hold the pawn. Games often end with black's extra pawn pushing forward with unstoppable promotion threats. If white does find (or even know) the best responses, black usually has at least a more open and active game than most 'closed' (1.d4) openings, and without that pesky isolated queen pawn.
Yeah, I was going to play the Tarrasch, and I bought a Grandmaster Repertoire book on it, but I realised it is so rare for Black to get a typical IQP position (which is what I wanted) that is really wasn't worth learning all the theory to it (which was also a lot more than I thought).
I definitely disagree!! If you play the tarrasch you get IQP positions all the time. In the book they give a lot of space to the Bg5 c4 line since it's very challenging, but in all the other (and far commoner at club level) lines you get typical IQP play. And even against Bg5, you can diverge from the c4 lines and play the old main line cxd4, with a typical iqp position. You can count on getting IQP positions in 95% f your games if you really want to.