Help me rid my phobia!

Fellow chess.commers please!

I have a phobia of replying 1. e4 with 1. ... e5 as black and I always play 1. ... c5, but I don't like that opening much! Can anyone help me make me more psychologically comfortable to play 1. ... e5??

PLEASE!!! I HAVE COOKIES!!

I'm no Psychologist but I would like to know why it is you choose to play an opening you don't like

Typical Game:

White: Opponent Black: Me

1. e4 c5

I move this almost always because I fear what would come after if I played 1. ... e5. I fear the Italian Game, Ruy Lopez, and Reti more than I dislike the Sicilian.

I'm in such a bind! PLEASE HELP ME!!

I always play 1...e5 in response to 1.e4.  Play through master games where Black has won with 1.e4 e5 to appreciate that Black has nothing to fear, at least no more to fear than in any other opening.

In time you'll get over it. In the meantime you could try the scandinavian 1.e4 d5

I felt similar once and didn't want to face either 1.e4 e5 or 1.d4 d5 when I was playing white. I started playing 1.c4 and sometimes 1.Nf3 (without knowing any theory) until I was psychologically ready to play 1.e4 or 1.d4 again. Now I am playing 1.d4

Maybe you could play 1...Nf6 or...Nc6 and only transpose to ...e5 games against certain lines for a while.  Sort of break yourself in slowly.

I used to have a similar feeling about 1..e5.

I felt as if, when everyne created a repertoire they would base it around 1.e4 e5, since that is the classical reply, and therefore always have an answer they enjoy and know well against it.

Here's what iv learnt. 1.Kings gambit, Italian etc are nothing to fear. Infact theyre quite easy to play against, much easier than the closed, grand prix, alapins and Bb5 sicilians. I just play the ..Bc5 lines in most of them.

As for the Ruy, play a mainline. Seriously so many people avoid them that Ruy players hardly ever see them, and will have much less understanding of the position. Infact, the Mainline Berlin Variation of the Ruy Lopez is the highest scoring opening personally ive played to date. I had huge success with the Sveshnikov, but the Berlin dwarves this.

well, sometimes it's a matter of choosing the lesser evil :D

you can try just forcing yourself to play e5 and see what happens, don't mind the rating points - it might even turn out better than expected, like when i took up the najdorf with very little actual theoretical knowledge :P

Why don't you like the Sicilian? The Sicilian is a vast and extremely flexible opening with all the variations, and contrary to what some people say, I think the Sicilian and it's various systems are easy to understand and can be played by all levels.Though like chess itself it takes years to become a master of the Sicilian systems, I think the very basic ideas of all the Sicilian openings can be learned quickly.

I do play the Sicilian! I do it to avoid 1. ... e5!

I didn't write "play" I wrote "like". In your post you said you didn't "like" the Sicilian much.

Not that it means anything here, but Morphy had a great distaste for the Sicilian, particulalry the closed Sicilian.  In annotating one of the games from the M'Donnell-Labourdonnais match, he wrote:

"The moves of 2.Nf3, or still better, 2.d4, are those now generally recognized as the best. The latter move is indeed so strong that it has gone far toward disabusing the public mind of that pernicious fondness for the Sicilian Defence which was displayed during what may be called the period of close games, extending from about 1843 to some time after 1851. It was an epoch of uninteresting games and dreary analytical labors, and with the exception of the contests ocurring between the great Prussian masters, afforded but comparitavely few specimens of brilliant play. It should be a subject of rejoicing with every lover of the game that an age, in which so much severe labor led to such unprofitable results, has passed away.
   There is now a visible tendency to cultivate a higher style of chess art- to sustitute for the false taste which has so long prevailed a more elevated standard of excellence."

I agree with batgirl. As black I almost always respond to e4 with e5. Bring on the Fried Liver! Ruy Lopez no problem! Viva L'Italia! Scotch Game--would like to play it again as black! In response to e4, e5 is nothing to fear, leads to fun games.

Hey, I played a live chess game where I used the queen's gambit which I had no theoretical knowledge about and I still won the game with a good position in the opening.

All the Sicilian variations weren't even around in 1843-1851. The Dragon was invented in 1880, the Najdorf was named after Miguel Najdorf who was born in 1910 so it had to have come after that. The Scheveningen was invented in 1923 the Sveshnikov was invented in the 1970s and so on and so on for all the others like the  Acclerated Dragon, Paulsen, etc. Similarly for the second move alternatives "Anti-Sicilians" like the Smith Morra gambit, Grand Prix attack, Alapin, etc, I don't think most of them were around in the period he's talking about. The Sicilian has added much more depth since then and it really is it's own Universe. Furthermore the games I play in it are interesting often being open with sharp tactical play. I too don't really like the closed Sicilians, as I don't like closed positions in general, but it's easy enough when people play the closed Sicilains to bust that stupid pawn blockade open and force those people to play chess.

If you come to my home for one hour a week for intense (and not cheap) therapy, I can help you overcome your phobia. Cash only, please.

Now I wonder... is there a way to play a reverse queen's gambit?

Oh, sorry. I merely skimmed the post that time.

Because there's too much theory associated with it. It's not suited to my style, I guess.

Phobophobia is nothing but the fear of fear itself, which is the only thing you have to fear, according to Franklin D. Roosevelt.  So if you are afraid of phobias then you you should be really frightened!

what about phobophobophobia?  It's a really, really specific type of phobophobia.