Which is a good defensive opening move which allows for a quick castling?

As the topic name suggests, I'm looking out for some good opening moves that I can use to have a strong center file and also to castle . Plz help me!

Thanx...

Well thats an interesting question.  For the castling part you should get it done with the vast majority of openings, for the open file bit I'd say you should start with e4, and you will get an semi open or open centre file the vast majority of the time.  Possible openings could be the King's gambit, the open sicillian, the main line caro kann, or the scandinavian- which all give open files to white.

As for black, if you want an open file, vs e4 I'd say go with the scandinavian d5, which will give you a half open d file, and vs d4 play something like the semi slav, which should give you the same after pawn exchanges. :)

Alright, I will try them. Thanx again :)

You could try the Larsen Philidor.

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 exd 4.Nxd Nf6 5.Nc3 g6

Gives you a sort of Dragon-ish setup on the K-side, with an open e-file.  It's not exactly super strong for black, but it's certainly playable, and the games can be fun.  And it's easy to play.  Of course, the big drawbacks are that good players can probably keep an advantage with white...and bad players will probably deviate before you ever get that far.  But such is life...and chess.

Most of the times, it happens that people understand that you're going for a particular tactic... Like, for example if White sees that black has played 1. ...c5 after 1.e4 he knows that Black is going for Sicilian Defence and quickly adds some other variations which rather leaves Black guessing his other moves. This situation happens a lot with me , when I'm Black. Most of the times, I can't find a good opening with Black and I'm really ANNOYED at myslef :(

 I mean, really! Does it look good?

It looks passive and White lets Black grab too much center right off the bat.

We've been over 1. e3 on the boards before. It's lame.

It isn't , I accept ...have been losing quite a lot of games with this opening... :| Honestly, I think it's a waste of tempo and really clogs White's moves.

And I'm thinking about trying the Sicilian Najdorf as Black, as it gives good positional advantage to Black

dude try something more basic, just go for the regular

1. e4 e5

2. Nf3 Nc6

3. Bc4

as white, it gives you a quick castling not a lot of knowledge its needed to play it and its fun

Unless you have some master plan of exquisite subtlety, play e4, d4, c4 or Nf3 on move 1.

Claim some center, develop your pieces and see if you can work up an attack. That is the road to improvement.

Yes!

Almost every disastrous game I have played involved my not developing my pieces before starting to get frisky. If you look at GM games, you will see that they complete their development first and only then start long-range plans of attack.

well if you play black against a defencive player it takes less time to fully form this defence, while the other one represented by white takes far longer.

Why not 2....Nxe4?

its a defencive playing tactic, if your playing another defencive player they won't try to pressure you until they finish with their defence.

What?!? If your opponent offers a free pawn with no visible compensation, grab it. Why be defensive, if you're not being attacked?

yes, I agree with Spudnik in this case, because not only white is offering a free pawn, but it also provides black with the control of the centre file

and mk_master can you plz show some more moves which might happen after 10. Rb1 . I'd like to know what to do once you've got a defensive setup

Anyhow, it's just too repulsive watching White set up a "defensive" position. There's no coordination of the pieces, no castling to focus on the center etc... That position is just gross.