Keep playing e4?

I'm a new player and am wondering how long I should stick to the same opening and when I should branch out and learn other approaches? Right now when I'm white I just play e4 every time because I understand the next few developing moves and have learned how to defend against lots of the early stupid moves black might make. But I really have no plan after the next 3-5 moves. When I am playing black, my plan is literally just to react.

For a new player, (less than 100 games played, say) what are the things I should prioritize learning and understanding? What things are just simply over my head right now and should avoid?

Thanks in advance. This forum is amazing!

Here are some general tips on how to improve:

https://www.chess.com/blog/nklristic/the-beginners-tale-first-steps-to-chess-improvement

As for should you keep playing e4... the answer is probably yes, but it is your choice. In any case try to stick to either e4 or d4 for starters and build upon it gradually. For now you will just follow opening principles, don't try to memorize opening lines.

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

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

- Can you checkmate with a rook and king vs a king?

- Do you know the opening principles?

- Look for every check and capture on the board and as a result of the move you'll want to make

-A connected point to the above, look for free pieces and avoiding giving them away, this single-handedly warps games

-Review your games

If there is something that you don't understand, even with a computer saying the ideal lines, don't be afraid to ask other chess players, such as on the forums, what is going on. If you still don't understand it, shelve it for a bit. There are plenty of other things to learn in chess and in doing so you may find what you need to understand the concept later. You don't have to learn everything immediately, some things you might run into before you are ready to understand it fully, though you may learn parts of it, and the rest will make sense in the future. 

Prioritize learning the basics, basically, don't look for some fringe idea no one has heard of in the hopes it will catapult you to the top. The biggest strugglers players have is not a failure to learn what to do, but a failure to do what they learned. They already have the information but are too busy looking for even more information instead of working with the information they learned and ingraining it into their play, which often involves being willing to make mistakes and lose. Eventually it gets there, it just takes time and practice. 

Feel free to stick with e4. E4 openings work in the highest levels of chess, there is never a point where the e4 openings are not strong enough. If there is a point where you would need to deviate from e4 as an opening, I haven't reached it yet, and I'm in the 1600s. I'm not saying e4 is the only way to go, but as far as opening standards go, e4 meets any requirements to keep up.

Find which one works best for you right now I wouldn’t worry about theory so much. But for me I use E4 and I plan to continue using it for a while

You should know how to play against d4 as Black but if you've gotten used to playing e4 as White then just stick to that.

As a beginner you should not think of openings at all, but you should definitely learn what the opening principles are. Don't play terrible nonsense like 1. e4 e5 2. Qg4? like you did in your last rapid game.

Read the stuff nklristic has linked, you can find opening principles under point 4.

Questions like this are literally the reason that Irving Chernev wrote the book "Logical Chess: Move by Move", which has been one of the most highly recommended books for beginners for decades. 

e4 and 800 forever. Don't wanna read in a boring book what I can (re) discover myself. Those who disagree just passing thru 800s. 

Yeah I find that e4 works well if the person you're playing isn't too good but it all depends on what happens afterwards as well. I play e4 a lot though and it isn't too bad

That a fantastic quote and thank you for the thorough reply!

I was black in that game, not white. White moved Qg4 and I figured it was best to just continue developing. My terrible nonsense came about 5 moves later

In the beginning openings should be just a tool to get a playable position and the main thing should be what comes after the opening (e.g. finding a plan, exploiting tactics, weaknesses etc.)

Didn't Fischer play e4 almost exclusively?

I gave up e4/d4 because it just felt stagnant and I never seemed to have a clear plan. I've gone into nimzo-larsen (b3 Bb2 e3) for white and similar stuff for black just because letting them take the center and trying to counterattack is more comprehensible to me than is just tying to grab the center.  

There was a learning curve as it results in different positions, but I seem to be doing better now and enjoying the game more. It is worth it to me to be slightly suboptimal in the opening in exchange for an easier time finding a plan. 

Hey you put this on his and my forum and im really thankful. Sooo helpful!

Thank you!

More good stuff of possible interest to discover....

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

I used to play e4 and then I found out about the icbm so I play d4 as black every time.