Opinions

I am just asking y’all’s opinions on your favorite openings/lines and why you like them. This isn’t a “what’s the best opening” or “what opening do I use to get to 1600” I’m just asking your opinions. Just fyi I will only take seriously the posts of players 1100+. I personally like the Italian and the QGD, basically because the theory is mostly simple.

When I began competing, decades ago, I loved the Italian system, it is extremely effective especially if you study it and play often with it but as I grew stronger as a player I realized that against stronger opposition, for me, it did not lend itself to positional type of chess I was striving for and so I began to wade 8 to Queen pawn openings. I played the Queens Gambit for years but I was stuck and simply could not grow as a player until I began using the London System. I know many players hate it and it's heavily criticized by many but it works for me and I have grown as a player with it. I am now wading back into the Queen Gambit territory and still struggle with it but my games are stronger and my performance is much better.

Thanks!

Currently thoroughly enjoying the king’s gambit. Really meshes with my aggressive style and may hold up when I reach higher elos (currently hovering around 1800).

N

I honestly find the wayward queen a very relaxing opening for white. If you play it smart you’re at worst going to end up with a drawn position out of the opening like no advantage and best case there’s a bunch of tricks the opponent could fall for

Achievements are better rhan Elo

Cool

Bump

i feel like the pirc is a really bad opening and is near refuted. i would not be recommending people the pirc

The Pirc Defense is nowhere near refuted

I like the Najdorf, for exactly the opposite reason... because it's a theoretical jungle, where the path is often only wide enough for one person and only the strongest or the most cunning (or perhaps, the best prepared) can survive.

Illustrative game available on request.

in every position here id rather be white because white has attacking ideas and is likely going to win this. black though has not much other than some c5 ideas or trying desperately to get in b5 for play

also most of these positions are like +1

The Austrian Attack isn’t a refutation lmao

The problem is most people play the Pirc like a system opening which is fine at lower elos since most people will have no knowledge of Pirc theory (I’ve had maybe one person play the Pirc mainline against me), but for it to be viable at higher levels of play, black really needs to do their homework. The Pirc is a very high maintenance opening for black since white has quite a lot of attacking opportunities, but none of these are so powerful for white that they could be considered a refutation. An experienced Pirc player shouldn’t really have too much trouble against things like the Austrian or 150 Attacks, and should come out fine in the end, because again, neither of these are refutations

its not a refutation but its quite better for white and in the end blacks cramped and his position is hard to play while white has the attacking potential and blacks left in a passive position

That isn’t true at all. Black can get some mean counterplay by challenging the center with c5 dxc5 dxe5 or c5 dxe6 O-O dxe7 Qxe7+

Can we turn this post back into Opinions on openings please?