I play the ruy lopez a lot. I have mastered the bongcloud, but, for some reason, the results aren't coming.
What is your favorite begginner/intermidiate opening?
As White, I play the King's Gambit and the Grand Prix Attack (in the Closed Sicilian). As Black, I play the Alekhine Defense and the Dutch Defense.
My favorite openings (listed above) are a result of a self-reflection of my chess personality (if that makes any sense). I found out that I was a bit passive in many of my games and didn't use tactics too much, so I picked sharper, more tactical, attacking openings.
In general, you want to try out openings for about 20+ games (at least) to get a good idea of whether it's for you or not. As many people suggest, blitz is ideal for this.
By the way, it's kind of funny how I've never heard of the Bongcloud until today and now I've seen it in 4 different forum posts!
I feel like I play the same one or two openings far too much. I would like to hear your opinions on what your favorite openings are to help expand my repertoire of starting moves.