What are the best openings to get a closed position?

I wanted to ask to the  knowgeable forumnites what are IYO the openings where you have empirically more probability to get a closed position in the middlegame.

In my case as White I play the Stonewall Bird: black could play the Fromm gambit but it doesn't happen often at least at my level. 

As Black vs d4 I play the Stonewall Dutch: White could play the Staunton gambit or the Bg5 line but usually the opponents  play c4 instead

The problem is vs e4 as Black: I use to play the French but 50% of the times the opponents play the exchange French which AFAIK leads to open positions. Do you know alternative solutions?

Regards

generally speaking it's hard to force a closed position, much easyer is to force an open one. I don't think it's possible to prevent your opponent from opening the game when you play black, the best you can hope for is to play a variation where opening the game for white is possible but not that challenging. The french is a perfect candidate since the exchange is not that fearsome, so i suggest you to continue with it.

By the way why are you offering your opponents the possibilityes of 2.Bg5 or 2.e4? A dutch+french player can laugh at these variation by using a 1.d4 e6 move order, meeting 2.e4 with d5 and 2.c4 with f5. Another reason to stick to the french! 

Thanks BTW Do live White opponents play a lot the exchange  line vs the Caro-Kann opening the position ?

Thanks .For some reason I have problems with the French exchange maybe it's the symmetry so I was looking for other solutions.

As Black in the Exchange I even tried  Qxd5 Scandinavian style or Nf6 gambiting a pawn like in the Icelandic gambit instead of exd5 but with mediocre results

Play an opening where your pawns don't make early contact with White's, like the Pirc: 1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 g6.

Not easy for White to open the position, but it's tricky to play and White has a space advantage.

In the long term it's always possible to open the position, so in my view you're searching for an impossible thing. By sticking to the french you can rule out 2 of the 3 problem variations you mentioned with the right move order. The exchange is really chess 1.0: if you're uncomfortable with that than the problem is in your chess and not in the opening. Maybe you are too used to closed positions? My personal suggestion would be to play a radically different repertoire for some time, striving for very open positions: tarrasch QGD, 1.e4 e5, to learn how to handle open fights. Then you can come back to the french and use your improved understanding to meet confortably the exchange.

The caro-kann is hardly going to solve your problems. Most variations are pretty open, for example 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.c4 is the panov botwinnik attack. You can see that it's as open as the french exchange, and moreover is also considered theoretically challenging! 

Numerous variations of the RL are really closed but it takes +9 moves to get into them so you need a willing opponent. Vs SD 2.Nc3 is aptly known as the Closed Variation. Overall though I agree with bresando, if there's a problem with open positions you need to adjust your chess skills not your openings. You're supposed to learn how to play open positions ahead of closed ones and not just IMHO but according to the great hypermodern GM Richard Reti in his classic work Masters of the Chess Board. 

Yes, Reti said that almost every closed position can be blow open soon or later, while almost no open position can be closed at will. So learning how to play open positions is foundamental also for playing closed ones.

bresando took the words right out of my mouth! OK I'm lying but I agree with him again anyway!

 I concur with your analysis  . I play "open" openings and gambits too . It's simply that at a gut level I prefer closed positions that's it. What I don't like also (at a gut level) about the exchange french is the symmetry: even when I win I feel uncomfortable, I always need some imbalance to work around. I was just curious to know if there are other openings apart these mentioned that are statistically more conducive to closed positions . 

You're right that the Caro-Kann Panov Botvinnik attack is as open as it can be but it also depends on how many opponent play that line:  if anybody when I play the Bird would answer with the Fromm gambit I would switch to another opening.

Regards

The main-line Ruy Lopez is about the most closed thing you can run across, but then if you play ...e5, you'll always run into some King's Gambit or Danish fan who won't give up till you're mated. You just have to broaden your chess skills.

Maybe you can try 2...Qxe5 in the exchange french which is not that bad. I'll bet quite a few opponents are going to play an early Nc3 where Bb4 will prove annoying. 

The panov botwinnik is quite common against the caro, but it's just an example. Also the mainline 3.Nc3 dxe4 leads to  rather open positions. however if simmetry is what you're fearing it might serve you better than the french. In my view however depriving yourself of a cunning move order (1.d4 e6) against the many annoying anti-dutch lines avaiable for white is too high of a price for avoiding a single (and not that strong) variation.

Or maybe they play Bc4 instead of Bb5 : AFAIK to rely on the closed Ruy  requires too much compliance from the the white player . 

AFAIK another way to get a closed game as white is the d4 Canard: it avoids even the Fromm gambit

There is no good way to get into a closed position without your opponent cooperating.

You're still here uhohspaghettio?

 Usually in the Qxe5 line they play Nf3 and then c4.  The problem of that line IMO is that you get both the tempo loss of the Scandinavian and the bad Bishop of the French

thanks anyway

Im playing Ruy Lopez for white, KID for black, closed sicilian for white and almost all the time reach closed position.

Im playing the french and 75% of the time the position are semi-closed.

Aha! The perfect topic for me to chip in at. The Stonewall is my personal favorite and I always use the Caro-kann. Against 1. d4 I use the Slav defense and if I get lucky I do the Slav Stonewall. Queen pawn players like me love solid stuff.

 The Slav Stonewall... interesting maybe it's even better than starting with the Dutch

  which lines of the Caro do you use when the opponent doesn't exchange?

Thanks anyway.