What is your favorite opening and why?

Hey everyone! As part of my Winter Blunderland series on Youtube, I am posting a question every day in December. Today's question: What is your favorite opening and why?

As most of you may know, my favorite opening as a 1450 rated player, is the caro kann as black (preferably the exchange)  and ately, my favorite opening as white has been been the closed sicilian grand prix variation.

For the CK, I'll have to admit that the reason it is is my favorite is just because of the familiarity I have gained by playing it for some time. I feel like there is some solace in knowing that I can play an opening, with a certain goal (in this case attacking the d4 pawn) without worrying too much of traps and potential blunders in the opening.

And the reason I like the Grand Prix is almost the exact opposite. There is the potential for quick win tactics getting the queen over to attack the queenside, but it's defendable, leaving me often in a position of "what do I do now" which I find entertaining and challenging.

Looking forward to reading everyone's answers. Hope everyone likes the December 1 episode

Thanks again for all your continued support!

-Patrick

Kings Indian Attack for black, Queens Gambit for White

Winter Blunderland, love it! :-) I am also exclusively playing the Caro Kann as black and like it for its mostly simple plans and ideas. Against 1 d4 I ususally try to go into the queens gambit declined. Main reason is that I haven’t gotten around to learn alternatives like the slav or kings indian defense. With white I am playing the Scotch as I like the open, tactial positions that usually develop out of it. Also the alapin sicilian, as I often get a good position out of the opening even at the 2000 level. Against the Caro I recommend you look into the accelerated panov attack - at the 1500 level you will get many quick wins and superior positions with this, as black has to play a rather counterintuitive move 5 and often misses it. Thanks for the YouTube videos - I am really enjoying them!

Caro kann is hard, my favorites are pirc, sicilian and kings indian

Queens gambit as white. As black I just play e5, d5, and let white dictate which opening they want to play.

london system, the strength of the base allows for such safe adaptability en experimentation without immediatly losing the game, so it makes chess more fun.

As an OTB player i like for black Ruy Lopez deffered Steiniz defence, and for white i like as E4 player to play against pirc, and modern defence

Scotch Gambit because it's tricky

As an improver who actually doesn't know how to improve I've been through openings like nobody's business 🤣 for black I like the Steinitz counter gambit, the one I thought was the queen's gambit for black, but other times when opponent plays e4 I might match with e5 or one of the Sicilian lines... I hate the pining of my knights so I insist on the a or h pawn push so yeah

Happy winter blunderland 😃. I’d say the Vienna is a favorite these days

Bishops opening ponziani gambit, franco-sicilian,catalan, or the polish

I thought I answered this. The London, it is solid and versatile for starting out.

Well personally, I like the Bishop's opening/ponziani gambit. Admittedly, I'm not a hugely experienced player, I've played the London, and various E4 Italian and Spanish openings. But I like the Bishop's opening because there are good opportunities to make life difficult for your opponent, if Black isn't careful his King loses protection and is unable to castle. I've seen this happen with quite a few good players, so I wonder if it's not studied as much as other openings.

I'm becoming more proficient with the Caro Kann (following Levy Rozman's excellent couse on chessly.com) although there are still lots of variations I don't know comprehensively.

I also like the French defence, but often struggle to develop my light-squared bishop when playing the French.

Colle Zuckertort! It is such an aggressive and rare opening for White and I can beat players with a much higher elo than me with it!

The Pirc for black and the Vienna for White. I'm an adult improver and I needed openings that were common enough to find adequate learning materials/videos but not so common that they would be the first thing people saw. I know it's a minimal edge long term, but putting your opponent in a situation where they're less comfortable and more likely to blunder really helps at lower Elo's.

Mine is caro Kann for black and London system for white

Nimzowitsch-Larsen attack for white. Classical or Modern based on whether my opponent plays e4 on the first move or not.

Most of the time as black I use the Philidor defense against 1. e4.

ponziani