firstopening

I would recommend the Roy Lopez, but I ended up getting smoked every time at the university chess club, many years ago, by higher rated players that knew all the main lines.

I switched to 1. d4 after that, and with little to no studying, did manage to at least get a decent game, even though it was impossible to win against people 300 or more points higher. I got to the endgame occasionally.

Back then my rating was about 1300 to 1400 USCF. I made up for being the worst player by becoming the president of the chess club. Probably the first one in it's history. But it allowed me to request a budget! So we took some trips to some tournaments paid by the university instead of everybody paying out of pocket. Sadly we did't get enough budget for anything we couldn't drive to in a few hours. But we still had a lot of fun.

I prefer Italian

If I was teaching someone their first opening, I would recommend italian game over Ruy Lopez for a couple reasons:

1. The Ruy Lopez is very theory intensive.

2. The Italian game just teaches the basic principles of chess better.

3. The Ruy Lopez is worse than the Italian game for inexperienced players. If somebody worse than me plays the Ruy Lopez, I will beat them quicker than if they played a quiter game like the Italian Game or the London System.

+1

I like the scotch, apparently its antiquated but it gobes me the chance to follow all the opening principles. I didnt stidy it by name, its jyst what i do and it happens to have a name.

Im terrible as black when i try to follow memorized lines. Ive been trying neighdorf positions lately with some success, but id like to pick a more understandable defense. I hate moving center pawns one square, so if i could find a defense that avoids that id probably study it.

If your trying to play the Sicilian Najdorf, at your level, it's not a good idea. It's the Cadillac of black defenses, but it's for  higher rated players. The tactics and combinations are nearly endless, but at your level, it's like juggling double edged knives without handles.

I'm not sure any Sicilian line would be good for beginners. The Sicilian is a very unbalanced game from move one. In my experience, white goes for an early offence. Black is left being defensive in the middle game, looking for an opportunity to switch to offence. Because white's been in attack mode, his defenses will be slightly less robust.

Once black seizes the offensive, it's often all-or-nothing, black can't afford to go back to a passive defense mode.

Also, even though the Sicilian is monster tactics, for both players, subtle positional choices can have a huge impact in the endgame phase.

In my experiece, if I get a draw in the Sicilian, I had to work hard just to get it and prevent my opponent from winning.

Completely correct. I believe there is a 2200? something rated person on this forum by the name of BlueEmu? (I might have done that wrong) who had a very intense game, which showcased the dangers and the fireworks that arise from the Sicilian Najdorf.

Personally, I enjoy Petrov's defense, but I appear to be an anomaly. 

The first opening I studied was the Roy Lopez

 I found a book on it at a used book store.

It was a disaster. Then I tried the French Defense as black, with with little to show for my effort.

Eventually I realized a book on openings for beginners, with mostly just the first few moves explained was more suitable.

I don't recall the name of the book, It was a long time ago, but essentially, beginners don't need to know deep theory of specific opening lines because:

1. Including sub variations, there are thousands of lines.

2. Players under 1500 elo generally can't stay in book much more than 5 to 7 moves, if it's a line they studied. More often because the opponent gets out of book, rather than a lack of knowlege.

Then there is the Club level play. Roughly 1200 to 1900, club players are not playing serious chess, but casual chess, often blitz, so they're constantly looking for lines and gambits meant to surprise and for the shock value.

Club player is a metephor for casual club play. Statistically, the majority of players are between roughly 1200 and 1900.

I'm just starting (emphasis on just) to get to levels where my ignorance of anything resembling opening theory is getting in my way. I used to play solely Petrov's as white, which while it turned out to be fairly effective, is starting to get beat due to me having no knowledge of the opening the second I get out of the main line. For example, I'm playing against a master in slow chess in a simul, and I am getting destroyed due to him playing an offbeat reply to Petrov's. (Early in game)

Thanks for the advice, I hated playing it any way. I went back to e5 (as blacks reply to e4), hoping for four knights, always praying for d5 (but ive found holding on to hope too long can kill me and i often have to avcept d6 or suffer. Especially in the italian game when bishops get involved quickly. 

I play e5 in response to e4, and I sometimes wish I had learned a different system (caro-kann, sicilian)

I do enjoy Petrov's though, 2. ...Nc3 is just too well known by players who play e4 as white.

Hi, Bob. Do you mind if I ask why you put your full name and phone number in your profile?