What's your favorite/most recommended chess opening?

I play 1. e4:

- Ruy Lopez

- Open Sicilian (English & Yugoslav Attack)

- 3. Nc3 in the French

- Panov-Botwinnik vs the CK

- Grab a big center and push aggresively against the pirc/modern/owen etc.

With black I usually play a Ruy against e4 and I haven't found any opening system I really like against the other opening moves, so I mix it up.

All my opening knowledge is from using a database in correspondence chess anyways.

I am only recently studying opening theory and have done pretty well. Learn to play chess, then refine your understanding of the principles by studying old opening theory and then move into more recent.

I've heard that king or queen pawn opening (one after the other, either order) is the strongest opening. How true is this? 

Umm, no. Not at that level. What's the point of learning to play a good opening if you're just going to blunder and lose in the middle game and end game? Until you reach intermediate level (maybe 1500 OTB, or 1800 on this site), you shouldn't study openings at all. Learn basic opening principles, like what's in the Chernev book I recommended, but don't worry about specific move orders.

Besides, if he's playing against opponents at his own level, then they won't follow the "book" moves anyhow, so he'll have to improvise early and often. So he won't even get a chance to use those book openings.

I was stationed in Britain in the early 90's, and due largely to the influence of Adams, everybody was playing the Trompowski.

And by everybody, I mean the taxi driver, the bartender, the kid delivering newspapers.

If you want to waste time studying openings instead of taking the advice of every single master, grandmaster, and chess coach EVER, who all agree that studying tactics will improve your game faster than anything else, then go for it.

As for your arbitrary cutoff between beginner and intermediate, I have no idea where you got that number from, but I won't argue with it. My point was that you should be a pretty strong intermediate player before you bother with openings. And even then, you should still spend at least 90% of your chess study time studying pretty much everything else in chess if you really want to improve.

Yes, I am saying not to studying openings at all. At least, not until you reach a decent intermediate strength of play by studying other areas. Learn some opening principles, and go from there. That's all you need.

@Fromper: what do you reccomend me working on the most?

Google Dan Heisman's Novice Nook column, and read his article entitled "The Four Homeworks".

I think the various responses this thread has received just further proves the point that a beginner player should not be learning multiple openings.  There's dozens of openings that are playable.  Its all a matter of what you like to play.  Pick one and learn it really well.  Don't memorize move orders.  Learn the ideas behind the moves and understand why they are the best moves.  Outside of that study tactics.  Learning many different openings will not improve your chess.  It will only confuse you while you play as soon as your opponent plays a non book move.  

d4

Sicilian, Ruy Lopez, Kings Indian, Grunfeld.  

I have no idea what this is.

Post #43 is a Nimzo-Indian. It's basically the Saemisch Variation (E24) of the Nimzo, but 7.f3 looks bad. Why didn't black play 7...Qh4+ instead of the abject retreat?

Here's a line that makes more sense against 5...Ne4. It was analysed on another site.

The Danish Morra. Great surprise weapon in blitz.

Has livluvrok been here since 2013?

Yes, he was last here under that name in 2016. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was here more recently under a different name.

Spanish Game with both colors!

And I shall counter his point with another point that his line can be completely avoided by Sicilian players!

1.e4 c5 2.d4 cxd4 3.c3 Nf6 leads to the 2...Nf6 line of the Alapin (a.k.a. c3-Sicilian).