question about openings
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For a beginner would you recommend picking one opening for white and one defense for black and perfecting those first? Or should I try to have a few in my repertoire? Sometimes I feel like I’m trying to take in too much info at once.
For white, I recommend playing e4 on the first move since it's more tactical and less positional. Against the Sicilian, you can choose between Closed and Open variations. Against e5, the Italian is probably the best for beginners as you can easily target f7. Many beginners fall into Fried Liver traps as well. Against French and Caro Kann, you can exchange as that is the easiest way to play.
When you are black, if you face e4, you can play e5. I think e5 is the simplest way as all other defenses have a lot of theory and ideas to memorize. Against d4, you can also play simply with something called the "King's Indian Setup". Essentially, you just play Nf6, g6, Bg7, d6, and castle. This works against almost all of white's ideas. However, you should still be careful as white can try for a sneaky attack against this defense.