A beginner's dilemma

I have been playing chess for just over a month now and have climbed from the abysmal rating of 300s to a tad bit respected ELO of 750s in this time span. Upon inspecting my games and overall stats, I figured out that I play way better with the white pieces due to my selection of a stable opening along with it's underlying tactical knowledge however it is a different story with the black pieces. Overall I have a 51% win rate with the white pieces but an atrocious 45% win rate with the black pieces. I would genuinely love to learn a solid opening for the black pieces against e4 but none of them seem to work for me due to my lack of tactical awareness with the black pieces. All criticisms and suggestions are appreciated. Wishing everyone a nice day.

I can teach you EXACTLY how to think during the game (opening, middlegame and endgame). Your chess understanding will never be the same and you will improve a lot. I charge €10/h, but if you can’t afford too many lessons, don’t worry. I can teach you a lot in an hour. Here to help if you are interested.

If you want to study by yourself, read ‘Logical Chess’. It is really instructive book. You have it on youtube as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eTB7oHeRgM&list=PLUrgfsyInqNa1S4i8DsGJwzx1Uhn2AqlT

Hi there!

I agree with what AtaChess68 said. Learning good opening principles as Black (and as White) builds a better foundation for your play than learning a specific opening. There's plenty of resources on YouTube and on this website that you can find, as well as by doing puzzles here if you have access to those.

I have a few personal suggestions as well.

1. Use the Explorer tool on this website to learn what the most common responses are to White's opening moves when you play Black. If you struggle with responses to e4, see what the most common moves are for Black and play around with them to find moves that work for you.

2. Look back at your own games and filter them by losses as Black. Analyse them and see why you lost those games. Did you make an error in the opening? Was it because your opponent navigated a complex middlegame better? Were you winning and then one move ruined the game? Do this as many times as you can and you might see patterns emerging in your play, both good and bad.

3. I've had a look at your game stats and it says that around 54% of your losses are due to resigning, so that is something I would vow you stop doing. The worst thing that can happen to you in chess is simply that you lose; resigning doesn't let you learn to the fullest.

I hope some or all of this has helped. Hope you have a good day!

- Logan

Learning openings at your level doesn't matter. Focus more on openings principals like the others suggested, it would be far more efficient.

You just need to get better at chess. However, you are unlikely to get better at chess without a solid grounding in fundamental chess principles and guidelines, nor by playing exclusively speed chess (rapid, blitz, bullet). As for the latter, you would increase your chances of getting better at chess if you were to....

Play Longer Time Controls

For many at the beginner-novice level, speed chess tends to be primarily an exercise in moving pieces around faster than your opponent while avoiding checkmate, in hopes that his/her clock runs out sooner than yours. And/or hoping to notice and punish your opponent’s blunders while hoping they don't notice and punish yours. The reason for this is that in speed chess there is little time to think about what you should be doing.

It makes sense then that taking more time to think about what you should be doing would promote improvement in your chess skills and results. Therefore one way to improve your chess is to play longer time controls, including "daily" chess, so you have time to think about what you should be doing.

This is not to suggest that you should necessarily play exclusively slow or daily time controls, but they should be a significant percentage of your games, at least as much, if not more so than speed games which, while they may be fun, do almost nothing to promote an understanding of how to play the game well.

Here's what IM Jeremy Silman, well-known chess book author, has to say on the topic...
https://www.chess.com/article/view/longer-time-controls-are-more-instructive

And Dan Heisman, well-known chess teacher and chess book author…
https://web.archive.org/web/20140627052239/

http:/www.chesscafe.com/text/heisman16.pdfhttps://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/dan-heisman-resources

and the experience of a FIDE Master...
https://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/how-blitz-and-bullet-rotted-my-brain-don-t-let-it-rot-yours

As for learning what you should be doing...

Improving Your Chess - Resources for Beginners and Beyond...

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/improving-your-chess-resources-for-beginners-and-beyond

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell

You can always play the Sicilian defense for black of you don't know how to start the opening

As others have already pointed out, opening principles are more important than learning specific openings. When I looked at your opening repertoire, it’s all over the place. Against e4, your main moves are d6, e5 or c6. However, you have also played g6 a couple of times, and sometimes Nc6, Nf6 or e6. Even d5 a few times, and also c5, as well as once b5. That’s 10 different responses to e4. My suggestion is to keep it simple. No Pirc Defense, because that one is not beginner friendly. Just stick to e5 and play normal principled chess.

You don’t need to play a specific opening but I recommend playing a little more consistently. For example, after 1. e4 e5 2. Bc4, you have tried 5 different variations (Nf6, nc6, d5, Qe7 and d6). You should not play Qe7, but otherwise they are all okay. I think it will be easier if you just pick one and get more familiar with it, instead of changing the way you play every single game.

The same applies to 1. e4 e5 2. Qh5, a line that you encounter often enough (more than 20 times in a month). Take the time to analyze that position and decide how you want to play it, that way you can confidently play a strong move every single time, instead of accidentally playing g6.

Thank you all for your respective suggestions. I have been viewing some standard e4 e5 games across various platforms and have been learning from that. Recently I did lose around 80 ELO due to lack of focus and just an overall nonchalant approach to this game. However I have been working on opening principles with the black pieces and have discarded the Pirc Defense for the greater good. Again I would like to thank each one of you for providing your valuable inputs. Wishing everyone a nice day.

1.e4 e5 is a great place to play around with learning principled chess. This was the opening I used from 1400 - 2000, but it is great to play at all levels.

E5 against e4 is the most solid, developing your pieces afterwards. If you are feeling spicy however, Sicilian Defense is worth investigating.

@FrogboyWarpz As an Indian I always feel spicy but I think that the Sicilian is way too much theoretical/complex for my level and maybe things might go south if my opponent deviates from the main line of the Sicilian or any of it's variations. Thanks for the suggestion by the way. Have a nice day.

Just a thought, if you are hovering around the 45-55% mark and your rating is increasing (300s to 700s) you’re holding your own against increasingly better opponents, that means you’re improving.

Me with my humble 200 elo

Hi - 1900 level player and lifelong chess player here, so please filter my response through that lens. Meaning that your needs and my needs and Ding's needs are all very different.

I think you identify the problem in your question, "none of (the openings) seem to work for me due to my lack of tactical awareness with the black pieces." So, I think you need to develop your board awareness. We can talk pins and x-rays and central control all day, and these are good, but if you're unaware of how the pieces relate to each other on the board, you'll continue to lose pieces and games. Strategy needs a tactical foundation, and your tactical abilities will fuel your strategic playing style.

So pick something and get good at it. Maybe pins are your specialty where in game you go out of your way to identify every possible pin. Or rearn the files and columns by rote. Quick, which of white's bishops can move to c7? Name all the squares in those two diagonals! Maybe look for all the potential rook placements on the seventh/second rank. I don't think it matters what you choose as you'll keep developing your tactical portfolio as you learn what more you need to know.

It's lifelong process and your needs and styles will change. So happy ! And may your pass pawns travel faster than your opponents!

Looking for your chosen area of improvement in famous hands or players is also excellent for free