What to play against 1. d4

A little bit of my history. In the late 90s/early 2000s I played the Kings Indian and a little bit of the budapest gambit. A little while later I played the leningrad dutch and some queens gambit declined. After that I played the Chigorin's Queens gambit for several years. I got tired of the Chigorin after a while so most recently I switched to the Benko gambit. I haven't played many games in the Benko in serious games. So far my results have been okay. 2 wins,2 draws and 1 loss. However, I'm not winning because my opening knowledge is super great. One of my wins was a swindle and in another I just outplayed my opponent in something I hadn't seen before. Also everything I know about the Benko comes from an old DVD by Andrew Martin. And even the author of that DVD says you have to do more than watch his DVD to get good at the Benko and suggested several books. So I figure before I go down that road I should consider other openings.

****A little bit about my style. With white I don't mind a quieter game but with black I like to make the position as crazy as possible and try to outplay my opponent in the complications. I played the french for many years and with decent results but recently I switched to the sicilian sveshnikov. Against the english I play 1...e5.

Okay here is what I am thinking.

(1) Kings Indian. The good thing here is I have played this before and still have several books on it. They are all over 20 years old though, so maybe I need some newer material? Another good thing here is that there are some positions in the sveshnikov that are kind of similar to the Kings Indian.

(2) Benko gambit. My first thought was to continue with this. I kind of wonder how much theory there is involved here. A lot of theory wouldn't be a deal breaker for me but it would be nice if there wasn't so much as there is a lot in the Sveshnikov.

(3) Grunfeld- I like this against the London. I once tried to completely switch to it but found it difficult to play. I probably didn't spend enough time studying the theory though. The downside is that there is a lot of theory here.

Any other suggestions?

Then again nobody has played 1. d4 against me in over a year in OTB games, Perhaps I don't need anything against 1. d4. lol

The benko does very well against all the zuckertort lines. Especially the London. 1... Nf6 > 2... c5 is probably the best anti-london line out there.

For a below masters player I think the Benko is the best option of the 3 you listed. But the complicating factor is your level of motivation to study the theory. Given that you already know KID theory... it's really up to you how much effort you want to put in.

Since you're a former french player, another thing you might consider is playing an e6/b6 system. You can open with 1. d4 e6 and if they respond 2. e4 (which only 10% of queens pawn players do... since they don't want to face your e4 defense) just play the french as an off-weapon, keep yourself from getting too rusty. You can also transpose the blackmar-diemer and richter-veresov into the french so it's broadly useful for dealing with sidelines. But it should require zero effort at this point for you to keep the french as an off weapon.

But if 1. d4 e6 2. c4, the main line... well you can try 2... b6 and get an english defense. e6/b6 is especially potent against d4/c4. After 3. Nc3 this is a very sharp line, dynamic and rare line. I like it alot for white. In spirit it's similar to the Benko. After 3. Nf3... f5 becomes a common idea, getting a safe and good version of the dutch.

Against the zukertort you can likewise play 2... c5. This is a great system against the zukertort. It's not played so often because you may get a french sicilian via 3. e4. But considering you know the sveshnikov... in your e4 repertoire you could actually reach the sveshnikov via the four knights. i.e. avoid the rossolimo, and also leverage your experience with the french. For example, you can transpose the alapin into the french exchange. Hence if you play both a french, and a french sicilian, you unlock this good e6 + c5 line against the zukertort, which is also quite rare.

The "downside" would be you won't face the main line of the four knights (which transposes with the sveshnikov) very often until you're higher rated. But... instead you usually will just get very easy equality, so it's not something to complain about however maybe not what you wish for.

If I were you I'd do this route as it leverages most of your experience and it's quite a good system, you're not down a pawn, it's not super-well-known and theoretical like the Grunfeld or KID...

Given the game began 1.d4 e6 2.Nf3 c5 3.e4 cxd4, how exactly would white avoid the main line of the Four Knights?

@OP

You listed KID, Budapest, Leningrad Dutch, QGD, Chigorin, Benko and Gruenfeld. As the guy said to The Terminator "You know your weapons, buddy. Any one of these is ideal for home defense. So which'll it be?"

Except in the case of the Chigorin (boredom) you didn't say why you switched from one defense to another. I suspect your problem is not so much "the opening", as that you keep switching. Assuming you had valid reasons for picking up the Benko in the first place, why not stick with it? Give it a proper workout.

Thanks for the replies everyone. @ToastBread_1 you know the benoni is something I had in the back of my mind to learn at some point when I started playing the benko gambit. Also one of my favorite chess books is Mikhail Tal: My life and games by mikhail Tal. He played the Benoni quite a bit and he analyzed his benoni games with great enthusiasm.

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@crazedrat1000 Thanks for that lengthy reply. The sharp lines you mentioned sound interesting. The only thing is I'd rather not play the 4 knights siciliian. I played the 4 knights before I started playing the sveshnikov. The problem is all my opponents went with the line 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 Nc6 6. Nxc6 bxc6 7. e5 Well...I say problem but I get that black is totally fine here. I even got a draw once against a 2000+ player with it in corespondonce chess. I just got tired of playing that line over and over again. If someone would play 6. Ndb5 every now and then I would probably still be playing the 4 Knights. Also I don't mind playing against the rossolimo. I play it with white and don't mind playing it with black too. On the other hand the chance of playing the french defense is an intriguing one.
 

I also noticed that and deleted my comment, I'm not familiar with 1.d4 openings.

I think I shouldn't give suggestions about something I don't know, my bad.

@yetanotheraoc You kind of hit the nail on the head. The problem is there are a lot of options and all of them are attractive. To answer your question.....most of the time I switched openings because of boredom or just didn't have the proper passion for the opening I was playing. My feeling is if the opponent has passion for the line that is played and I don't then my opponent has a certain advantage. I am sort of inclined to go with the Kings Indian. To be honest thinking about the Kings Indian is kind of like thinking about an old lover. The kings Indian was one of the first openings I studied. I played a lot of fun games in it and also some heartbreaking losses. The only thing is I don't have any record of those games. My computer got fried by lightning and I lost all my chess data which included those games. I am also intrigued by the Benko and possibly other options. Can a chess player have multiple lovers?

no problem....thanks for your honesty.

@yetanothersockpuppet The post you quoted is discussing his entire repertoire, dunce. Read before commenting. Obviously you need to think about your entire repertoires cohesion when you choose a line. And that's the french sicilian starting position.

@jamesstack well considering how rare that transposition is another option would be to just play the four knights in that position (since you know it already) and the mainline sveshnikov as your main e4 defense. After all, how deeply are you going to study the zukertort sidelines in whatever system you choose

Most serious in top-level chess and also according to the leading computers: Nimzo/QID, Grunfeld, some types of QGD, QGA, Semi-Slav and maybe other types of Slav too

Also very playable in human practice although computers don't always love them: some flavors of KID, Benoni, and Benko, maybe even Austrian or Old Indian

It's not about what you choose, because if you're below 2600 OTB you could play any of the openings I just mentioned with success. It's more about what are you willing to learn deeply. Pick something you like and give it a real chance over a long period of time. And if you need to make a change, if you absolutely can't handle one line, make a small switch rather than a big one, so that the knowledge base you've built up can still help you

You play Sveshnikov and 1. e5 against the English, yeah? I would say the Grunfeld is likely the best fit for your repertoire but you could also give the Semi-Slav or the KID another try, but no matter what you play you’ll have to learn the theory so don’t let that be the decider for what you play

In amateur play, I have found the Budapest Gambit to be a VERY good response to d4. Not at high levels but at mid-low elo ranges the Budapest Gambit is very tricky to deal with.

Based on this preference of yours, I would recommend giving the Dutch a try, or the Modern Benoni ...

Or the Kings Indian. That one is crazy too.

Kinda funny when OP says I hit the nail on the head and someone else says I need to re-read the question.

If the problem is boredom for you, or psychological advantage to the opponent, maybe there isn't any one defense that will solve that. Maybe the answer is two defenses.

Part of the answer also depends on whether you plan on playing otb/ in tournaments or strictly in an online setting. Online your repertoire can’t be exploited

When you play the KID, You have to know a few Benoni lines against some of the Variations White side players play.

- Four Pawns Attack

- Semi Averbach

It is often recommended in those lines to play c5 and not e5 turning the position more into Benoni vs. KID. This is also why some of the KID GM’s such as Tal and others use to play the Benoni as well. It was part of their Repertoire because they needed to know how to play it against certain variations in the KID.

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When you play the KID, It can be helpful to know how to play a few Gruenfeld lines against some of the other lines White side players play.

- Trompowsky

- Kings Fianchetto

You could try playing the KID vs. White King Fianchetto line. David Bronstein showed how to play the line with KID. There is a book written about it. I never found the lines compelling as Black and simply chose to play more in Gruenfeld fashion.

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I use to play the KID for many years, but it isn’t as solid as other lines.

I switched to the Gruenfeld as it is a more solid line to play vs. the KID.

The truth is all the lines you listed lose to computer engines or very strong players.

- Benoni

- Budapest

- Benko Gambit

- Dutch

- KID

The only lines that you mentioned which hold up are the QGD & Gruenfeld.

So the real questions are:

Are you play to be Best? Or

Are you playing for Fun?

If your trying to beat very strong players, you need a line more solid.

If your playing for fun, you can play any of the lines you mentioned.

You seem to be confusing the four knights game with the four knights sicilian. The position you cited is the starting position of the french sicilian. The french sicilian leads directly into the four knights sicilian, the main line of which transposes w/ the Sveshnikov. 
The four knights game does not lead into the Sveshnikov, if you couldn't tell.