The openings of the future...?

How many times have you seen or played a middlegame in which the differences between relative piece values seemed to be erased throughout? I believe that openings like those will be the ones absolutely dominating the chess scene in two or three decades, more absolutely than ever. They already offer oceans of dynamic complications, so as the novelties spring almost every day, it could be possible that any endgame-ish openings would fall out of favor for lack of resources, but that's just my thinking. As of the present, such openings would include the ones that are currently theoretically overweight, mainly the Sicilian Najdorf, Dragon and Dragadorf variations, the Semi-Slav Botvinnik variation, and...? Any ideas? My guess is that the ever-resourceful Ruy Lopez will survive, so will the KID, specifically the Bayonet Attack and the Saemisch Variation, I guess (at least I know some marvellous middlegame examples in both cases). The Nimzo-Indian should also survive, maybe the Scotch will hit the spotlight once again, and the common old gambits would be extinct. Or would it all be the other way round? You tell me, when you're between a Chuck and a Vlad place!

I think that the ruy lopez will have a revolution somewhere which would help white or black.  The Marshall Gambit might be analysed out to a definite conclusion would be my guess.

I think that the less popular openings will make their mark again as the ruy lopez would be analysed out.  Maybe the Italian will come back with a new revolution in the Two Knights Defense, showing that black does not have enough play for the pawn after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Ng5.  White must find somewhere to improve with 3...Bc5 to have the popularity rise again.  Maybe with the Powtow Attack?  An improvement in the Mueller or Rossolimo Variations?  Possibly the Evans or Italian Gambits.

The Scotch would be a good candidate as it has not been greatly popular and it has not been analysed to a great depth.  If a great player will pick it up and win convincingly with it, then we will see a resurgence.

The only thing is if these become to popular then black might turn back to the Petrov Defense and white would have to adjust.

Well, then the Bishop's Opening would hit the spotlight. As for the sidelines and openings less seen today, I think improvements in the Italian, Scotch, and Four Knights Game would be delightful! Nakamura does a good job already when it comes to less common openings, and if the Scandinavian would improve, together with the Icelandic Gambit and the Budapest Gambit, it could be great! The only thing is that I believe it would need lots of heavy analysis to put those minors in charge (although the Scotch's already got a bit more theory than the other mentioned lines, thanks to some G. Kasparov). But who knows, maybe even Gruenfeld will be considered inferior to the Hippopotamus or even Pterodactyl? If you asked me if I'd like one opening to improve, I'd say the Duch, from Black's point of view, of course. Maybe the Classical Variation? I mean, even I get annoyed when White fianchettoes the King's Bishop!

So, I say: I'm really afraid that the Gruenfeld, Pirc, and Alekhine defences won't survive (with the Dutch in serious crisis), and that most of the gambits will perish. So, aside from really sharp openings, like the Sveshnikov, Botvinnik Semi-Slav, Dragadorf, and maybe even Benoni, the openings that could survive would be Reti, KIA, Zukertort, the Nimzo-Larsen Attack, the English, the Hungarian, then the Robatsch, the Hippo, and heavily flexible systems in general. I never mentioned the French, the Caro-Kann, and the Philidor, but maybe they would all be considered too passive??? Or will Philidor experience a glorious return? Nah.

I think that openings like the pirc, modern, Alekhine, KIA, hippo, and the Nimzo-Larsen are better than their reputation, but they are too passive to become challengers to traditional openings, unless a big improvement is found in one of them.  The future probably will have a period of more playing and less playing, but they will remain the state they are in today.

The English could have its place eventually, but it would take a huge blow to 1.d4 openings for the English to become popular again or a great player such as a world champion winnning convincingly with it.  It will bedifficult competing with 1.d4 and 1.e4 in popularity.

The Dutch could become more popular in the future if an improvement is found for black in the Leningrad Dutch.

The Scaninavian has had a few outings, but theory has clearly shown that it is too easy to gain an advantage and the gambits in the opening such as the Icelandic, Portuguse have taken a theoretical beating.  I doubt that the Scandinavian is coming back anytime soon.  I think that the Benomi is facing the same situation.

The Budapest may stick around for a little bit until white finds a novelty which shatters the reputation.

I think that the Queen's Gambit will be as popular as ever.  Depending on how black stands in the main lines could mean that black may switch to the KID.

So you say it'd be KID instead of the QGD, back-to-back with Nimzo-Indian, or...? Also, any thoughts on the Orangutan, Santasiere's Folly and similar?

P.S. I guess the QID/BID would be equally popular in some future as today.

I think that black will switch to the KID or alternatives as the Queen's Gambit Declined might be much stronger than we realize and it is the strongest variation for white.

Now with openings like the Orangutan, I think they are offbeat openings and will probably not become mainstream.

more dragon players will go to the accel. dragon

• I agree that something could spark in the Ruy Lopez but maybe not in the Scotch. I feel that opening traps will appear but it could be equal understandably. On another one of your comment you mentioned something about the KID (I literally just realised that this is like 14 years ago so it was different back then). The best response to d4 now is usually Nf6 as QID can be better for White and QGD is slightly equal to White is better. KID is usually the best choice and the Jobava London is popping up more against KID and Dutch. Sicilian is still Black's most played response to 1. e4 but e5 isn't a bad choice. The Benoni feels scary to face as White but with good analysis it gives White a better position and so is the Benko Gambit. Marshall seems to be even for now though.....! Offbeat openings with animal names usually aren't the best idea and you can beat them with ease or avoid them for example Budapest can be avoided by d4 Nf6 Nf3 and if e5 first well White has a really pleasant position. Petrov is still okay, brought to play by the Stafford Gambit. However Modern approaches have popped up and saved openings like the London (Jobava London), Dutch (Leningrad, Classical, Stonewall) with major masters who influence the play of these. Most openings that have e4, Nf3, and Bc4 are now considered to be equal and I believe that in the future, openings like Sicilian, Ruy Lopez, and Kings Indian (Pircs when transferred by 1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 g6 3. Nc3 (Jobava Setup) d6 4. e4 Bg7 5. Be2 0-0 6. 0-0. But again this is 14 years later and I just wanna put out here, I mainly use my experience and chessable courses but most engine analysis are done by Stockfish 16+ (I'm not sure which version but Stockfish 16+). If someone ends up commenting on this years later (like 14 years later) then it would just feel insane how this one article is so old.....!