How to deal with unique, aggressive openings?

95% of the time, the openings I play against are pretty standard, by the book stuff. But if someone plays a very aggressive opening that I’ve never seen before, I get wrecked. It’s also the reason why I can’t beat Jade, the 1300 level CPU. Her openings are insane, I can’t even get a solid game going against her. It made me realize that while I do play very solid “by the book” openings, I’m not very adaptable in the opening at all. If someone plays an opening outside my comfort zone, my pieces end up getting chased around, I lose material, and it’s over before it even starts. Then I’m like “what just happened?”.

What’s the best way to counter these odd, aggressive openings? How can you prepare for every possible opening? I develop my pieces, try to control the center, but against these openings I get owned.

Having not seen specific games, here are a few things to think about when you play against aggressive openings you are unfamiliar with:

1. Developing pieces and controlling the center are generally good ideas. But don't forget king safety. Get your king castled early!

2. Look for ways to trade pieces. The fewer pieces your opponent has, the harder it is for them to attack.

3. A very aggressive opening almost certainly means your opponent will have holes in their defense. Watch for those and find opportunities to counter attack.

 

I checked your games. You aren't generally losing to openings. You frequently just lose because you hand your opponent pieces for free or make simple tactical mistakes. Pulling from the games I saw you lost I found these things from a quick skim. Don't worry about openings, just pay attention to what you are doing and don't leave your pieces undefended. 

https://www.chess.com/live/game/5661597859 Move 4 you give away a knight for a pawn. Move 29 you give away your queen for free. 

https://www.chess.com/live/game/5660183546 You left c7 open for a checkmate.

https://www.chess.com/live/game/5659566536 You left g7 open to checkmate.  

https://www.chess.com/live/game/5658733780 Move 12 you move your light squared bishop to d5 for a bishop trade, except the knight on e7 guarding it is also shielding your dark squared bishop from the opposing queen on d2. Without the knight that bishop is attacked by that queen and a knight on e4 with only the queen on f4 defending it. So you lose a piece. That one is a trickier thing to miss than just hanging a piece straight up though. 

https://www.chess.com/live/game/5646604548 Move 9 when you took their pawn. See how their defended rook points down the e file to your queen and king? That should be a major alarm bell, keep as many obstacles between them as possible until you can get them off that file so the rook doesn't ruin their day. This was the start of your problems, but on move 11 when you castled, you not only hung your knight for a pawn, but their rook now has a discovered attack on your queen. Your castling also left your rook to be taken on the diagonal by their bishop, which did not help. 

https://www.chess.com/live/game/5641586957 Move 13,you hung your pawn on f2 to a knight fork of two rooks and a queen. You could have captured their pawn on e4 with the knight on c3. You concede after you likely mouse slip your queen from recapturing, but you are already in a bad place by letting their knight trade for a rook.

https://www.chess.com/live/game/5641576685 Hung your queen on move 5

https://www.chess.com/live/game/5641517750 Move 17 your knight is attacked by a pawn. You decide to take their pawn on a2 instead of their bishop on d5. If you had taken the bishop, their knight on f7 is now hanging, so you could end up a piece ahead. Instead you lose a piece for just a pawn, then hang your bishop on move 18. 

https://www.chess.com/live/game/5641432386 Stick this into a computer analysis and look at the big swings and the lines behind them. This was a wild game. You had several chances to nail them, but you'd have had to catch certain things to do it. Move 12, 13, 14, 16, and 18 in particular.