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What openings for an intermediate player?

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GeneralPawnMan

Hi, in my profile. It says i am 600 rated. My goal is 1000. And yes, players below 1000 are considered beginner. But when i check game review the game mostly thinks of me as a 1000-1300 rated player.

And im looking for a good opening for white as i am kind of getting tired of playing the london system too many times, im sorted out with black as i have the caro kann defense with me. As white i mainly play london system. Could you possibly recommend me any good openings for white i can add to my arsenal?

Compadre_J

If your playing the London System, It would mean your a 1.d4 player.

Your next Logical Line Upgrade would be to start playing the Queen Gambit.

However, You really don’t want to start playing the Queen Gambit till your Intermediate Rating.

I consider 1,400 rating to 1,700 rating as Intermediate Level.

So you would want to keep playing the London System till you get to around 1,400.

The Queen Gambit can be theoretical.

If you try playing it against players below 1,400, You’re just going to get frustrated due to your opponent’s doing stupid crap.

The London System is easy to play, solid, and doesn’t have tons of theory which means you can get a lot of easy wins vs. reckless players.

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However, If you find yourself getting bored or not enjoying the London System, Than it would indicate to me that perhaps you need to find a different Beginner Opening to play.

A few other Beginner lines worth considering is:

- Colle

- Torre Attack

- Trompowsky

- Rubstein (Plays Fianchetto with b3)

All the above lines are 1.d4 lines, but are slightly different vs. London.

They also are fairly Beginner Friendly.

If you don’t like any of the above lines, Than you probably are not ment to be 1.d4 player.

You would need to do Major Openings Shift to 1.e4 lines or different first move lines

GeneralPawnMan

ok man, thankshappy.png

GeneralPawnMan

Also, are there any other beginner lines i could play? i play mostly as a person on likes solid openings

Compadre_J
GeneralPawnMan wrote:

Also, are there any other beginner lines i could play? i play mostly as a person on likes solid openings

Sure, There is tons of different Beginners openings you can play.

It just depends on what set up your going for.

1.e4 or 1.d4 or something else

GeneralPawnMan
Compadre_J wrote:
GeneralPawnMan wrote:

Also, are there any other beginner lines i could play? i play mostly as a person on likes solid openings

Sure, There is tons of different Beginners openings you can play.

It just depends on what set up your going for.

1.e4 or 1.d4 or something else

I am a 1. d4 player, any recommendations? i currently am using the london system

pcalugaru
GeneralPawnMan wrote:
Compadre_J wrote:
GeneralPawnMan wrote:

Also, are there any other beginner lines i could play? i play mostly as a person on likes solid openings

Sure, There is tons of different Beginners openings you can play.

It just depends on what set up your going for.

1.e4 or 1.d4 or something else

I am a 1. d4 player, any recommendations? i currently am using the london system

The London is a decent opening. To get good at it one has to master a lot of positional concepts found in various openings and you can't play in in wrote fashion. Might not need to change if you like it. You just might need to keep playing it working out the kinks. IMO... look for way you can transpose to more favorable lines in other openings ... And incorporate attacking themes found in the Pillsbury and Stonewall attacks.

I don't play as if I'm headed to the top levels of Chess. Nor do I play as if I'm in a national tournament and everyone knows what openings I play. I'm a Club player and anyone I play even if they know what opening I use, they don't know what variation I will play.

I play the Colle Koltanowski and the actual Stonewall Attack. I open my games with either 1.d4 2.Nf3 3. e3 or 1.d4 2. e3 3.Bd3. I don't play them in wrote fashion, and know where to transpose to favorable lines of a reverse QG or something else.

I started playing these openings because the themes and strategies are clear and easy to learn. Hence hard for Black to manipulate the opening. Once I understood them, I then started learning how to get better at doing them. (still a work in progress)

There is another factor here at work... People here can talk all they want about "xyz" opening being boring, easy to counter, easy to predict.. and it's easy to cite some line sitting at a computer looking at some engine evaluation. And understand... a lot of people on the internet cheat... either use a date base or actual engine.  (so take playing on the internet with a grain of salt... also take anyone's rating on the internet with a grain of salt too... unless they are a true titled player in in the USCF or FIDE)

I'm always amazed at how many people avoid the openings I play (seems if they were that bad they would enter into them willingly) and when they do play the Black side, they usually have little knowledge of the finer points of the positions. My issue is not the opening phase, my issue is I get out played in the middle and end game... (that's probably the case with most Club level players)

RalphHayward

Because it's relatively formulaic-strategic and not out of keeping with the 1.d4 player overall mindset, maybe have a look at a few GM-level games with 1. b3 and see whether or not the positions come naturally to you. Bias alert: I personally feel that playing at least one hypermodern-style opening is good for growing one's overall understanding of position types, and to my mind the Nimzo-Larsen is the least difficult to play of the bunch.

KeSetoKaiba
GeneralPawnMan wrote:

Hi, in my profile. It says i am 600 rated. My goal is 1000. And yes, players below 1000 are considered beginner. But when i check game review the game mostly thinks of me as a 1000-1300 rated player.

And im looking for a good opening for white as i am kind of getting tired of playing the london system too many times, im sorted out with black as i have the caro kann defense with me. As white i mainly play london system. Could you possibly recommend me any good openings for white i can add to my arsenal?

Hi @GeneralPawnMan That's a good goal happy.png

Let me answer the things you've asked now:

- The global average rating on chess.com is in the 600s so you are already about average, but it is also true that players below 1000 (and sometimes even below 1200) are usually thought of as beginner-level. This is because the first refers to statistics of how advanced most players are with their chess and the second refers to ability. In other words, the global average is as low as 600s because most chess players are in the beginner level and especially beginner to intermediate level.

- Game Review rating estimates are not that accurate at all. In fact, chess.com was considering getting rid of this, until they replace it with a more accurate rating estimate tool (that was mentioned in the recent "State of chess.com" YouTube live stream a few months back if I recall)

- For white, if you are getting tired of using the London System, then there are many great openings to choose from; maybe this will help you decide on what you should try next happy.png

Martytec

Before committing yourself to 1.d4 openings, I'd suggest you try 1.e4 or 1.c4 see if you like those better first.

At your level, you still have the luxury of switching between openings coz once you get to a certain elo, it will become much harder and riskier to switch due to fear of elo loss or changing style of play.

I wish I had explored more with 1.e4 and 1.c4 when I started out. I started playing with London System as well untill I reached around 1300 then I did give 1.e4 a try but found that it didn't suit my style that much (I might say the same to 1.d4 too, if I had started playing with 1.e4 first)

I ended up switching back to d4 but changed to Queen's Gambit. It's much more theoretical than the London System, making it more difficult to learn but also more engaging in my opinion.

Whichever opening you choose, make sure you enjoy playing the positions and don't forget to explore other openings at the early stage while you can before committing to an opening.