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What are your favourite openings?
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17-02-2011 12:31am#1As White I like the Giuoco Piano, sometimes Giuoco Piantessimo, however I'm willing to play d4, Re1 (without taking back an exchange of pawns), f4 at will. I normally play blitz, and I find it fun and intuitive to play at blitz.
As White against the French Defence I play the Advance variation. A lot of people think they can break down my chain, but it just about works, and I am an expert at the endgame that results if they hack at it and keep exchanging things pieces/pawns.
As White against the Sicilian I hope for a Be3 English/Yugoslav type attack, I hate when my opponent tries Taimanov line or some weird line. Sometimes I will go for a closed game.
As Black against d4 I now play an Indian Defence to avoid complications (remember I mainly just play blitz), however I'm become interested in double queen pawn openings recently and bought a book on them which should be coming any day.
As Black against e4 I generally play a Sicilian Scheveningen or Dragon (... e5 at some point later on, but only if I think my opponent has lost the initiative), sometimes I try to go for the old Rxc3 sacrifice at some point (not sure if people around here know about that but it's fun when it works out).0
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I've just started studying chess openings again after several years of just playing the occasional casual game.
As black, don't play 1 ...e5, 2 ...Nc6, 3 ...Nf6 as I'll answer that with one of my new favourites - 4 Ng5! after 1 e4..., 2 Nf3..., 3 Bc4... - yes, Fried Liver would spring into action!!!
As white, the Guccio Piano with be good with casual players IMO, given the ample opportunities for black to go wrong - for example, winning blacks queen with a rook check from e1 in conjunction with the queens bishop on a3 cutting off the f8 flight square, or blasting black's kingside with Qxg7 in response to black keeping both of its knights (being a piece up) when in fact, black should surrender the knight on e4 and instead play d6 and castle kingside.
As black, I think the Sicilian is good and solid - I have mostly studied the Dragon variation, but I do like the look of the Classical variation with its Knight exchange on c6 leaving black with not only two centre pawns, but also a c pawn after 6 Nxf6 - bc. As white, I've been trying the Yugoslav Attack against chess computers, but have so far failed - black seems to always get a good game on the queenside and is lethal with knights and bishops not to mention the ferocious tempo. I might start trying the Levenfish attack - would also be good with casual players I reckon, given the many chances for black to go wrong.
I'm now looking at 3 main lines for chess openings as black:
Sicilian for 1. e4...
King's Indian for 1. d4...
English Opening for 1. c4...
What about 1. f4? Well, given the severe weakening of white's kingside on f2, I would never have expected any f pawn move on 1, but I've read that it is possible - I think my response would be a centre gambit with e4 - so after 1. f4 - e5, 2. fe - d6, 3. ed - Bxd6, black would have a considerable development lead for the sacrificed pawn - I wouldn't like to be white given the immediate availability of black's Queen and two bishops in conjunction with white having only moved it's f pawn - the very pawn that helps to keep white's kingside strong - I wonder is this line worth studying?
Regards!0 -
Irish and Proud wrote: »I've just started studying chess openings again after several years of just playing the occasional casual game.
As black, don't play 1 ...e5, 2 ...Nc6, 3 ...Nf6 as I'll answer that with one of my new favourites - 4 Ng5! after 1 e4..., 2 Nf3..., 3 Bc4... - yes, Fried Liver would spring into action!!!
As white, the Guccio Piano with be good with casual players IMO, given the ample opportunities for black to go wrong - for example, winning blacks queen with a rook check from e1 in conjunction with the queens bishop on a3 cutting off the f8 flight square, or blasting black's kingside with Qxg7 in response to black keeping both of its knights (being a piece up) when in fact, black should surrender the knight on e4 and instead play d6 and castle kingside.
As black, I think the Sicilian is good and solid - I have mostly studied the Dragon variation, but I do like the look of the Classical variation with its Knight exchange on c6 leaving black with not only two centre pawns, but also a c pawn after 6 Nxf6 - bc. As white, I've been trying the Yugoslav Attack against chess computers, but have so far failed - black seems to always get a good game on the queenside and is lethal with knights and bishops not to mention the ferocious tempo. I might start trying the Levenfish attack - would also be good with casual players I reckon, given the many chances for black to go wrong.
I'm now looking at 3 main lines for chess openings as black:
Sicilian for 1. e4...
King's Indian for 1. d4...
English Opening for 1. c4...
What about 1. f4? Well, given the severe weakening of white's kingside on f2, I would never have expected any f pawn move on 1, but I've read that it is possible - I think my response would be a centre gambit with e4 - so after 1. f4 - e5, 2. fe - d6, 3. ed - Bxd6, black would have a considerable development lead for the sacrificed pawn - I wouldn't like to be white given the immediate availability of black's Queen and two bishops in conjunction with white having only moved it's f pawn - the very pawn that helps to keep white's kingside strong - I wonder is this line worth studying?
Regards!
Out of interest, what would you play against 1. Nf3 - the magnificent Retí!?0 -
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Irish and Proud wrote: »I've just started studying chess openings again after several years of just playing the occasional casual game.
As black, don't play 1 ...e5, 2 ...Nc6, 3 ...Nf6 as I'll answer that with one of my new favourites - 4 Ng5! after 1 e4..., 2 Nf3..., 3 Bc4... - yes, Fried Liver would spring into action!!!
That's the two knights defence proper. It's quite rare nowadays for black to allow you to go into the fried liver: in theory black gets an even game, however the fried liver has so many mines for black to fall into and twists and turns with zero counterplay that it's almost impossible for black to defend it over the board. It's an example of where even at the Super GM level the practicality of actually trying to defend it matters a lot.Irish and Proud wrote: »As white, I've been trying the Yugoslav Attack against chess computers, but have so far failed - black seems to always get a good game on the queenside and is lethal with knights and bishops not to mention the ferocious tempo. I might start trying the Levenfish attack - would also be good with casual players I reckon, given the many chances for black to go wrong.
That sounds good, it would also work against the Accelerated/Hyper Accelerated Dragon for those people who have a book of variations on them to throw at you. I'm sticking with the Yugoslav myself, however I use the Opocensky (6. Be2) against the Najdorf and Scheveningen. I think it's good practice to use at least one kingside castling opening against a variation of the Sicilian. I've played people online in blitz where their modus operandi against the Sicilian seems to be "try and castle queenside, and if all goes haywire, castle kingside", and it really doesn't work well at all.Irish and Proud wrote: »Sicilian for 1. e4...
King's Indian for 1. d4...
English Opening for 1. c4...
What about 1. f4? Well, given the severe weakening of white's kingside on f2, I would never have expected any f pawn move on 1, but I've read that it is possible - I think my response would be a centre gambit with e4 - so after 1. f4 - e5, 2. fe - d6, 3. ed - Bxd6, black would have a considerable development lead for the sacrificed pawn - I wouldn't like to be white given the immediate availability of black's Queen and two bishops in conjunction with white having only moved it's f pawn - the very pawn that helps to keep white's kingside strong - I wonder is this line worth studying?
Regards!
I changed my d4 answer as black to the Slav. It's something the opponent is less likely to see at under master level, and it's more in line with the traditional ideas of occupying the centre at first opportunity which I like. It's more solid than the Indian defences, but with a litlte more counterplay than the Queen's Gambit Declined. Also against 1. Nf3 and 1. c4, a Slav repertoire can be fairly easily adjusted to accommodate those two.
At some point I would like to learn the Queen's Gambit to a fair extent as white. Even if I never play it seriously, I think it would help a lot against someone who plays something like 1. f4 or the Colle or London System. Then I might be able to win a tempo somewhere along the line, and instead of playing a solid Slav with an extra tempo, I might be able to play d5 and c5 and go into a full Queen's Gambit.0 -
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TheKeenMachine wrote: »Out of interest, what would you play against 1. Nf3 - the magnificent Retí!?
I remember your query and now I have the answer:
1. ...Nf6!
White's 1. Nf3 is known as the Zukertort Opening (Reti is a certain continuation of this - with 1. ...d5 and 2. c4) and is intended to minimize White's early commitment to any particular line (King Pawn, Queen Pawn, English etc) while preventing Black's e5 - as Black, I'd simply do the same back to White with my Knight to the f6 square - this also prevents 2. e4 and by default, deviates from the Reti Opening. From there, the game could evolve into the King's Indian Attack (with Whites 2. g3 and 3. Bg2 etc.) to which I'd probably play 2. ...d5 leading to a closed variation. After 1. ...Nf6, transpositions to the Queen's Gambit, Slav, Indian Game, English etc are also possible.
Regards!0
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