(700 elo)What's best opening to play against e4?

I am between 700-800, but I like Caro Kann as black.

I would play what I mostly play now and that is the Caro-Kann.

Just as good are e5 (the double King Pawn) and the French.

Sicilian might be a little too complicated, but I guess objectively at master level it is the best option…

Pirc should be OK.

I suggest you try them and find out which one you like and feel comfortable with.

Also the Scandinavian should be OK.

Anything not listed above will probably be a bad idea.

There is the Alekhine and the Modern, but you can get into trouble playing those unless you know what you are doing.

You have 4 main options: Open game (1. ... e5), Caro-Kann, French Defense, and Scandinavian defense. You should study all of them before you choose one.

e5 or d5, you can play both.

Beware if you see this opening when you play e5, it's an opening trap played around the 700 level.

against e4 e5 is always best

The Caro Kann isnt too complex? There are some very complicated lines, but you can sidestep most of them (in advanced variation, if you want, you can play 3. ... c5 rather than the 3. ... Bf5. This gives a more simple game plan.) However, it is definitely more complex then something like the Scandinavian, and very positional, so unless that fits your playstyle, its 100% understandable to not take it.

Then again im 800 myself so dont listen to me lol

His opponents aint that stupid

I'm just a 1000, but you shouldn't put your queen out so early. Also if you use the knight to defend the pawn, then it won't work

Also don't play too complicated openings like Caro Khan, or Sicilian, play Scandi, or something simpler

I'm also a 1000 and i agree with the person above me.

Would personally recommend the Scandinavian and 35 until 900, after that most people will stop hanging pawns, whole then recommend learning the pirc and e5

I played pirc defense and was trying to learn theory at 1100ish then realized that you can just play the kings indian against anything (with logical moves if they push a pawn to attack your knight you wouldn't be stupid and hang it) and you don't need to memorize any theory. I think this opening is probably also good for beginners because it is very hard to blunder back rank mate with it. Also if you play the Reti to start out the setup people with low elo commonly blunder e5.

I was trying to play the pirc defense, but my winrate was not that good. So recently I have played a few games using caro and scandi (on chess com and otb) and it seems like scandi leeds to a more open/tactical game + it is super simple. I will play scandinavian defense, thank you all for your suggestions, they were really helpful

I lot of opponents my level seem to use openings such as the Scandi, or the Pirc, and they "mess up" or let me get the opening advantage, with will let me ether convert it into a winning game and take up all Black's space or lose it, and Black comes up with attack and counterplay.

While it may be good to have a opening such as Scandi or Pirc to always use, its ten times more important to know the opening fundamentals at the 700 - 1000 level. Don't try to memorize moves, know how to win at the opening and get the advantage and manage to win the game from there.

A few fundamentals

- Don't bring your queen out too early, your opponent will use their pieces to kick it out

- Remember that advancing a pawn create weak squares

- Be sure to protect the center pawns and to be sure not to trade out the pieces protecting it