What's the Best Chess Opening

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lucfredrickson22
Hey, everyone.

This is not my first time on Chess.com I have been using different accounts for years now.

My game isn't pretty good. I only have a score of something like 750, and I was just wondering what opening would really put my opponent in trouble and give me an advantage.

Thank you.

lucfredrickson22
corum

There is no such opening and you are asking the wrong question. 

For a start an opening is a series of moves played by both sides. So for example, white might play e4, if he thinks that the French Defence (1. e4 e6 2 d4) is the opening he would most like to play against. However, black might not play e6. He may play e5 or c5 or something quite different. So there is no one opening that you can play. It depends upon what your opponent would like. At present I am really interested in King's Gambit. In particular, I like 1. e4 e5 2. f4 exf4 3. Nf3 g5 4. Nc3. I think this is an exciting line for white. So I play e4 every game I play as white. But black does not always even play e5. Even when black does play e5 and I can play f4, lots of times black does not take the pawn. So please forget the idea that there is a magic opening that can make you a strong player. 

Honestly, at your level (which I hope you won't mind me classifying as beginner) you should pretty much forget openings anyway. You should focus on opening principles and seeing tactics. cherub_enjel often posts on these pages and says that the reason that most games are won and lost at levels below about 1800 is because players hang pieces or don't notice that their opponents have hung pieces. 

Here is a nice post about how to play the opening - https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/basic-principles-of-chess-openings

Steve

kindaspongey

The April 2017 issue of Chess lists the top twenty openings compiled from a list of 2215 February games where both players were rated over 2400 Elo. One can not take position on this list too seriously because it is greatly influenced by how the openings are grouped. For example, all the Retis are grouped together, while English is separated into 1...c5, 1...e5, etc. Nevertheless, for what it is worth, some of the list entries are: 127 Retis, 113 Caro-Kanns, 97 King's Indians, 95 declined Queen's Gambits, 78 Nimzo-Indians, 70 Slavs, 64 Najdorf Sicilians, 59 Queen's Indians, 57 1...Nf6 Englishes, 50 1...e6 Englishes, 50 1...c5 Englishes, 50 Tarrasch Frenches, 42 Classical Gruenfelds, 40 1...e5 Englishes, 39 Kan Sicilians, and 38 Closed Ruy Lopezes

For someone seeking help with choosing openings, I usually bring up Openings for Amateurs by Pete Tamburro (2014).

https://kenilworthian.blogspot.com/2014/05/review-of-pete-tamburros-openings-for.html
https://chessbookreviews.wordpress.com/tag/openings-for-amateurs/
I believe that it is possible to see a fair portion of the beginning of Tamburro's book by going to the Mongoose Press site.
https://www.mongoosepress.com/excerpts/OpeningsForAmateurs%20sample.pdf
Perhaps lucfredrickson22 would also want to look at Discovering Chess Openings by GM John Emms (2006).
https://web.archive.org/web/20140627114655/https://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen91.pdf
"Each player should choose an opening that attracts him. Some players are looking for a gambit as White, others for Black gambits. Many players that are starting out (or have bad memories) want to avoid mainstream systems, others want dynamic openings, and others want calm positional pathways. It’s all about personal taste and personal need.
For example, if you feel you’re poor at tactics you can choose a quiet positional opening (trying to hide from your weakness and just play chess), or seek more dynamic openings that engender lots of tactics and sacrifices (this might lead to more losses but, over time, will improve your tactical skills and make you stronger)." - IM Jeremy Silman (January 28, 2016)
https://www.chess.com/article/view/picking-the-correct-opening-repertoire
https://chess-teacher.com/best-chess-openings/
https://www.chess.com/blog/TigerLilov/build-your-opening-repertoire
https://www.chess.com/blog/CraiggoryC/how-to-build-an-opening-repertoire
https://www.chess.com/article/view/learning-an-opening-to-memorize-or-understand
https://www.chess.com/article/view/the-perfect-opening-for-the-lazy-student
https://www.chess.com/article/view/3-ways-to-learn-new-openings
https://www.chess.com/article/view/how-to-understand-openings

https://www.newinchess.com/media/wysiwyg/product_pdf/9035.pdf
https://web.archive.org/web/20140627110453/https://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen169.pdf

https://www.newinchess.com/media/wysiwyg/product_pdf/9029.pdf

https://www.newinchess.com/media/wysiwyg/product_pdf/7277.pdf

https://www.newinchess.com/media/wysiwyg/product_pdf/9033.pdf

lucfredrickson22

Thank you that helped me a lot!!! 

creatureofthenight6

Meme: Ruy Lopez is my name, Spanish is my game

 

creatureofthenight6

But still

 

kindaspongey

Has lucfredrickson22 been here since 2017?

Colin20G

Undoubtely the halloween gambit and not the grob as many players think.