French defence, QID, Dutch defence
Which openings you play
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E4, I play most lines but not Rui or Scotch. Sicilian and Dutch.
Sep 26, 2023
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#4
I play the English (1.c4) exclusively as white, and as black, in response to e4 I play the Caro-Kann (1. e4 c6). This helped me climb to 1970 rapid very fast, as I often find that the English (which is a mainline, but not so popular as the e4 or d4) often catches even advanced opponents off-guard, since most of their opening preparations and traps fail.
The English is mostly slow and positional in nature and not vastly characterized by traps and tricks during the opening phase. The Caro-Kann I feel, needs much lesser theory to know than the Sicilian or the e4 systems like Ruy-Lopez or Italian. Basically, you learn the advanced, fantasy, classical, short and panov variations to some depth, and you are mostly ok for the below 2000 level. One thing I noticed in the Caro-Kann is that for people playing it for the first time, they might feel
a bit strangled as black especially with lines such as the Bayonet attack, but with somewhat proper preparation, it is a very safe and solid opening to play with very good pawn structure in the endgame.
My advice is that learn only one or at most two openings per color, and master it, rather than learning numerous openings but each on a shallow level. Because as the legend Bruce Lee once said, “I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.”
The English is mostly slow and positional in nature and not vastly characterized by traps and tricks during the opening phase. The Caro-Kann I feel, needs much lesser theory to know than the Sicilian or the e4 systems like Ruy-Lopez or Italian. Basically, you learn the advanced, fantasy, classical, short and panov variations to some depth, and you are mostly ok for the below 2000 level. One thing I noticed in the Caro-Kann is that for people playing it for the first time, they might feel
a bit strangled as black especially with lines such as the Bayonet attack, but with somewhat proper preparation, it is a very safe and solid opening to play with very good pawn structure in the endgame.
My advice is that learn only one or at most two openings per color, and master it, rather than learning numerous openings but each on a shallow level. Because as the legend Bruce Lee once said, “I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.”
Why don't you try 1...b6? It's playable against most white openings.
Yeah Scotch is good
WHITE:
king's gambit (but want to play much stronger and more aggressive danish & goring gambits)
smith morra gambit
scandinavian > gedult BDG
alapin diemer gambit
mieses gambit
krejcik
BLACK:
marshall scandinavian (and I hate it and want to play rousseau & jaenish/schliemann etc.)
englund hartlaub charlick gambit (the only thing I ENJOY playing as black)
slav move order stonewall against pretty much everything else but the grob and am trying to learn the carokann english
White:
I play e4, trying to get italian game. If they play 3. ... Nf6, I will try to fried liver them. If they play guico piano, I will likely play center attack, but I'm thinking of possibly switching to guico pianissimo.
against caro, I play advance and fantasy variations (in my opinion, those are the hardest to play against, and Im speaking from some experience.)
against sicilian (yes, for some reason people play that at my level sometimes), I play alapin variation.
Against french, I play 3. Nc3, with poisoned pawn variation if I get winawer, and just play with logic otherwise.
against pirc, I play 150 attack.
Black:
Against kings pawn, I play the caro, and if 1. c4, I play 1. ... e5. My opening repertoire is not decided on 1. d4, but I might be thinking of playing the slav with a 1. ... c6 2. ... d5 move order, also allowing a transposition into the caro.
if playing caro against the english is one of black's strongest replies, and you already play it by its natural move order, then your slav line seems logical and lessens your theoretical burden.
had TERRIBLE results TRYING to maroczy fantasy the caro, but mixing it up with the french's 3.Be3!? alapin diemer is pure watch caros learn about Bxf7+! the hard way carnage. when I saw my results just doing what comes natural and learning it has a name, going straight to 4.f3 confuses black way more than the maroczy. black really knows what he's doing in that in my experience, but tactics 101 mieses doesn't register
To be honest I just move pieces around on the board
Write down the openings you play and you Can also to be opinion about these openings at intermediate and advanced level
Queens gambit
Italian game with Evans gambit
Scotch game
Vienna game
Dragon sicilian
Carokann
Nimzoindian with bogo Indian
Slavdefense
Dutch defense
I know the Vienna and the Carokann
Is it worth learning others also I am preparing my opening repertoire for tournaments so I need at least 3 options for each color