Overrated Openings

everyone is saying queens gambit is overrated

sicillian is

Over rated? ----any half-open opening---- to quote Thajeev23,they are just played to avoid a fight and flex elo...if someone really wanted a fight, they would respond to 1.e4 with e5

Under-rated? ----almost any gambit. Many self-described" experts", typically denigrate gambits, until they face them, at which point it's the five d's of dodgeball: dodge, duck, dip, dive and dodge---but mainly dodge. If gambits are so unsound why do the very players who make that claim, decline the gambit, or even worse play lines where they never have to face them?( psst ,because those players su...su...su...yeah)

Fried Liver Attack

It plays for an advantage and does it well. How exactly is it overrated?

Alright, here are some of my hot takes which will hopefully spice up the thread and spark some arguments.

First off, people really really need to stop playing the Four Knights. If you look in some databases, pretty much every White opening is better: the Italian, the Ruy, the Scotch, the Ponziani, etc. And it's probably the most dull e4 e5 opening out there.

Second, I think almost every YouTuber opening is overrated. For example, Eric Rosen's Stafford Gambit also got a lot of hype, when it's pretty easy to refute. The Hippo has been mentioned in this thread already, and it's a pretty terrible opening. I will add that all opening traps are overrated, we need to stop hyping up hope chess. Also, 'meme' openings like the Cow Opening will just mislead new players

Finally, and this is by far the hottest take here, I think 1... e5 is overrated. Why would you even play this move? You're walking straight into your opponent's prepared lines, and White just has so many options. If you choose to play a different opening like the Sicilian, the ball will be in your court since you know the Sicilian better than your opponent. 1... e5 players will have a ridiculous opening workload if they want to know all of White's possible openings. Yes, I know that top GMs play 1... e5. I just don't think it's worth it learning 1... e5 at the amateur level when your time is better used elsewhere.

Which brings me to my final hot take: openings as a whole are overrated. You can play basically anything in the opening and get to a playable middlegame. People waste too much time learning openings when their time would be better spent on other areas of the game.

Anyways, that's the end of my essay. Don't take it too seriously, as I did exaggerate quite a bit for comic effect

Ahh yes, instead of playing 1...e5, people should play 1...c5 because people don't know theory to it. I mean, it's not like the Sicilian is the second most popular opening at amateur level...

Also, 1...e5 doesn't always have to be followed up with 2...Nc6. There are perfectly viable alternatives, such as the Petroff (not as drawish as people make it sound), which is not just an opening everyone has prepared for.

London is overrated

If you know correct theory, unless you are playing a engine dragon is perfectly fine, and this is coming from a dragon player with black and a Yugoslav player with white

My comment is coming from a used-to-be Dragon player with black and a Yugoslav player for white. I will stand by it. White's attack almost always seems faster than black's in the Yugoslav if played correctly.

If you aren't getting an advantage against most people using the Yugoslav against the Dragon, no offense, but you may be doing something wrong.

Black must not be playing correctly, otherwise the engine would judge the dragon +3 or smth

Well it's hard for black to play correctly when he has to find lots of moves humans would rarely find, and are the only good move in a position.

A lot of the moves are theory which set up a easy to execute attack

Ok, here are a few typical positions I get when playing the Yugoslav:

Something like this (probably the best of the three positions for black, but I still prefer white):

Or even this ugly position:

I always play ...g4 at some point before h4, because ...h4 is met with ...h5. ...g4 can also be met with h5, but it's not very good for black because there won't be an h-pawn, making it even easier for white to attack.

Black's best try might be to start a counterattack, but as I said before, white's attack is normally done faster when played correctly. White steamrolls black on the kingside with h2-h4-h5 and Bh6 thrown in there at some point, possibly to prevent h5 by black.

I think that in all of these positions, white's attack is very easy to execute, and black's is less so.

The Orangutan/Polish opening

Scandanavian is super sound

Englund Gambit on the other hand is far from sound.

Yes that is why I did not mention it, although at your level the bongcloud is sound, so I wouldnt worry too much 😉

lol

As a Sicilian player, you’ll probably never face a White player who knows the Sicilian better than you do. (And if you do, you need to brush up on the Sicilian) On the other hand, if you play into Ruy Lopez as Black, your opponent will probably have more knowledge and experience in such positions, putting you at a disadvantage. And you could be right about the Petroff, but I don’t know why anyone would choose such a dreary opening.

Whenever I see 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3,I play Nf6...the Unloved, under-rated, Petrov. Those who play half-open defenses as black, the most over-rated openings, have soft, fat, rubbery faces just asking to be slapped, repeatedly, by a dolphin or sea otter, or just about anyone.