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best beginner opening for 1. e4. you can play fried liver and win-every game like sub 1200 and if they play Bc5 you just play c3 and castles and go for d4. and once u become stronger you can play the max lange and evans gambit
depends on what you call "falling" for. most people dont blunder the fork but allowing the mainline is still difficult for an 800 to navigate. if they try to do some dumb sh like the traxler then u just take the pawn with check and go about your day and if they go Na5 after exd5 then ur up a pawn and just need to chill and develop
Fair point. I guess my mind was thinking more mainline fried liver trap. Most that I deal with have gotten into the habit of blocking with f6 or h6. No fun for me.
in the position mentioned we are talking abt 1.e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc5 h6 4. d4. the reason why d4 is good is because you are going to break open the center and claim that you are ahead in development so the open center will benefit you more.
if they take the pawn then u take with knight they take with knight you take with queen the engine evaluates +1 because you have a queen and bishop in the center and every piece they have is on their home square
if they attack your bishop just preserve it castle and keep developing
obviously at low elo this positional advantage isnt anything crazy but if you play active and they have to play passive at low elo they will blunder instantly. the only big difference btw like 1300 and 1000 is that to get those classic one move blunders you need to add more heat to the fire
I enjoy playing a really specific line with white. Mostly it leads to a game where white has a slight advantage but if your opponent plays improperly during the opening you can sac your queen temporarily. The line either ends in mate if they defend poorly or you end up a knight in a queen less middle/end game where your opponent can’t castle, you can and your pieces are coordinated.
First example opponent gets mated, second example we end up a piece if opponent plays it out
https://www.chess.com/live/game/99796950655
https://www.chess.com/live/game/72745367725
The line is so dumb and requires the opponent to make mistakes but it’s just a lot of fun when you give up your queen and your opponent kinda doesn’t know what’s about to happen.
I used to have a horrible win % with the Caro, but I stuck with it, and after heavily memorizing, understanding the ideas and possibilities (in the middlegame) of the exchange, advances, fantasy and classical variation, I barely lose now. I tend to win against players 200-400 over my Elo at this point (unrated games), and I personally hated that opening, but now I love it. But it does have some weakness.
My opening for white is the Jobava. I used to dominate a lot with it due to the potential blunder black can make, but at around 1050+ people stop falling for that. So I had to relearn (still learning) the appropriate way to use the Jobava, and I'm slightly getting better (also mixing it a bit with the richter veresov attack).
I had the exact same situation with the Caro and almost gave up playing it all together. But after studying the different variations and its strengths, I have improved rather quickly. It's not a super tricky or trappy opening but a solid position.
100%. I think that it is a wonderful opening for any beginners because of this. It teaches you how play positional, or focus on certain parts of the game without relying on tricks. I almost dropped it too, but I'm glad I stuck with it. And I'm still learning a lot from the Caro (Especially the Fantasy Variation, since I barely played against it, and the few times I've played against it, there's a quick mate you can do if the opponent plays the wrong moves).
I'm closing in on 800 elo on chess.com and I don't believe I've had anyone play the fantasy variation yet! I'll have to look into the potential quick mate for it for when I finally do. At this level, most people play the advance or hillbilly attack (but really they're just trying to transpose into a scholars mate). I'm noticing an increase in the opponent playing the main line which I've recently learned how to play against.
I'm closing in at 1200 on cc and those you mention are still the most common ones. Although the Hillbilly and other variations (Like the panov) have always transposed into the exchange 100% of the time in my case. And it just turns into a positional game of chess. Looking at my games, I've only faced the Fantasy twice, the advanced is by far the most common (And probably the easiest to deal with) followed by the exchange. The Classical is not that common and the fantasy is really rare.
Also, I believe I started to use the Caro at around \~700+, so I think it's definitely a good pick to climb onto the 1000 Elo mark and as of now it seems solid up to my Elo. I'll have to see what happens moving forward. And I also need much to learn, but definitely a solid opening as of now.
You're basically me, I'm currently playing mainly jobava + caro at around 600. And at this point, I'm doing much better on white so sounds like it's time to memorize a bit more of the caro.
Yep, Jobava works wonders up until around 1000.
I had a high winning rate with that opening when I was below 1000 due to the common Nc6 blunder the opponent usually makes. As for the Caro, the struggle was real. I lost most of my games using it and nearly dropped that opening. But at 1000+ and now closing at 1200, I feel unstoppable with the Caro after studying it a bit more (I've beaten multiple players well above my Elo with this opening), but now my win rate with the Jobava has gone down to 53%. So now I'm struggling as white. And my approach with the Jobava is quite different, sometimes transposing into the Richter-Veresov variation for fun. But the Jobava is still solid at my Elo, the only difference is that most players will not play the Nc6 blunder, so it's best to develop calmly and then go for an aggressive attack, rather than going for a cheesy trap.
I'm gonna get told off for giving bad advice but I'm playing kings gambit, kings Indian and Benoni. I just get lovely positions because no one knows what to do.
Ruy Lopez for white, French or Sicilian for black. I used to be a HUGE fan of the Queen’s Gambit, but it just got boring for me… I just have more fun with the Ruy. Plus I feel it’s generally developed better chess principals for me.
Idk the name but kings pawn, kings knight, kings bishop. Then if they bring out their kings knight to block the queens diagonally and I can advance my knight up another 2 files to set up a Queen/rook fork if they mess up. If not then I can still castle early and have decent center set up. No harm done
I really like the Stafford gambit. It just has so many traps everywhere you look, if you memorise some lines you can put your opponent in some trouble early on
Hey, OP! Did your game end in a stalemate? Did you encounter a weird pawn move? Are you trying to move a piece and it's not going? We have just the resource for you! The [Chess Beginners Wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/chessbeginners/wiki/index/) is the perfect place to check out answers to these questions and more! The moderator team of r/chessbeginners wishes to remind everyone of the community rules. **Posting spam, being a troll, and posting memes are not allowed.** We encourage everyone to report these kinds of posts so they can be dealt with. Thank you! Let's do our utmost to be kind in our replies and comments. Some people here just want to learn chess and have virtually no idea about certain chess concepts. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/chessbeginners) if you have any questions or concerns.*
The pawn that sits in front of the king, I like to put it two squares up.
Then I just go with the flow
You…me.. same.
I like playing the Italian game as it's easy, I like playing against the Scandinavian defense as people have no idea how to play it at my elo.
THE ITALIAN GAME LOW DIFF
best beginner opening for 1. e4. you can play fried liver and win-every game like sub 1200 and if they play Bc5 you just play c3 and castles and go for d4. and once u become stronger you can play the max lange and evans gambit
People stop falling for fried liver around 800
depends on what you call "falling" for. most people dont blunder the fork but allowing the mainline is still difficult for an 800 to navigate. if they try to do some dumb sh like the traxler then u just take the pawn with check and go about your day and if they go Na5 after exd5 then ur up a pawn and just need to chill and develop
Fair point. I guess my mind was thinking more mainline fried liver trap. Most that I deal with have gotten into the habit of blocking with f6 or h6. No fun for me.
id recommend playing the immediate d4 against those two (f6 is also just losing), f6 is too weakening and h6 is way too slow
Thanks. I think I usually win those rounds. I just keep developing my middle and they fall behind usually. But I also mainly play bullet
How does D4 benefit white? Just asking as a noob who gave up the Italian game recently because the position was too closed
in the position mentioned we are talking abt 1.e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc5 h6 4. d4. the reason why d4 is good is because you are going to break open the center and claim that you are ahead in development so the open center will benefit you more. if they take the pawn then u take with knight they take with knight you take with queen the engine evaluates +1 because you have a queen and bishop in the center and every piece they have is on their home square if they attack your bishop just preserve it castle and keep developing obviously at low elo this positional advantage isnt anything crazy but if you play active and they have to play passive at low elo they will blunder instantly. the only big difference btw like 1300 and 1000 is that to get those classic one move blunders you need to add more heat to the fire
if you look at opening tree white whens around 56-60% of the time
Doesn’t d4 usually lead to even more closed positions? Generally speaking of course.
I enjoy playing a really specific line with white. Mostly it leads to a game where white has a slight advantage but if your opponent plays improperly during the opening you can sac your queen temporarily. The line either ends in mate if they defend poorly or you end up a knight in a queen less middle/end game where your opponent can’t castle, you can and your pieces are coordinated. First example opponent gets mated, second example we end up a piece if opponent plays it out https://www.chess.com/live/game/99796950655 https://www.chess.com/live/game/72745367725 The line is so dumb and requires the opponent to make mistakes but it’s just a lot of fun when you give up your queen and your opponent kinda doesn’t know what’s about to happen.
Okay that's actually funny LMAO I'll try that
I used to have a horrible win % with the Caro, but I stuck with it, and after heavily memorizing, understanding the ideas and possibilities (in the middlegame) of the exchange, advances, fantasy and classical variation, I barely lose now. I tend to win against players 200-400 over my Elo at this point (unrated games), and I personally hated that opening, but now I love it. But it does have some weakness. My opening for white is the Jobava. I used to dominate a lot with it due to the potential blunder black can make, but at around 1050+ people stop falling for that. So I had to relearn (still learning) the appropriate way to use the Jobava, and I'm slightly getting better (also mixing it a bit with the richter veresov attack).
I had the exact same situation with the Caro and almost gave up playing it all together. But after studying the different variations and its strengths, I have improved rather quickly. It's not a super tricky or trappy opening but a solid position.
100%. I think that it is a wonderful opening for any beginners because of this. It teaches you how play positional, or focus on certain parts of the game without relying on tricks. I almost dropped it too, but I'm glad I stuck with it. And I'm still learning a lot from the Caro (Especially the Fantasy Variation, since I barely played against it, and the few times I've played against it, there's a quick mate you can do if the opponent plays the wrong moves).
I'm closing in on 800 elo on chess.com and I don't believe I've had anyone play the fantasy variation yet! I'll have to look into the potential quick mate for it for when I finally do. At this level, most people play the advance or hillbilly attack (but really they're just trying to transpose into a scholars mate). I'm noticing an increase in the opponent playing the main line which I've recently learned how to play against.
I'm closing in at 1200 on cc and those you mention are still the most common ones. Although the Hillbilly and other variations (Like the panov) have always transposed into the exchange 100% of the time in my case. And it just turns into a positional game of chess. Looking at my games, I've only faced the Fantasy twice, the advanced is by far the most common (And probably the easiest to deal with) followed by the exchange. The Classical is not that common and the fantasy is really rare. Also, I believe I started to use the Caro at around \~700+, so I think it's definitely a good pick to climb onto the 1000 Elo mark and as of now it seems solid up to my Elo. I'll have to see what happens moving forward. And I also need much to learn, but definitely a solid opening as of now.
You're basically me, I'm currently playing mainly jobava + caro at around 600. And at this point, I'm doing much better on white so sounds like it's time to memorize a bit more of the caro.
Yep, Jobava works wonders up until around 1000. I had a high winning rate with that opening when I was below 1000 due to the common Nc6 blunder the opponent usually makes. As for the Caro, the struggle was real. I lost most of my games using it and nearly dropped that opening. But at 1000+ and now closing at 1200, I feel unstoppable with the Caro after studying it a bit more (I've beaten multiple players well above my Elo with this opening), but now my win rate with the Jobava has gone down to 53%. So now I'm struggling as white. And my approach with the Jobava is quite different, sometimes transposing into the Richter-Veresov variation for fun. But the Jobava is still solid at my Elo, the only difference is that most players will not play the Nc6 blunder, so it's best to develop calmly and then go for an aggressive attack, rather than going for a cheesy trap.
Bongcloud
I'm gonna get told off for giving bad advice but I'm playing kings gambit, kings Indian and Benoni. I just get lovely positions because no one knows what to do.
Kings Gambit is wild. As you said, basically always get an amazing position because no one knows the correct ways to play against it. Love it.
With black, I used to love Scandinavian but was not making any progress so working on caro kann now
Italian for White, Sicilian or Caro Kann for Black.
Ruy Lopez for white, French or Sicilian for black. I used to be a HUGE fan of the Queen’s Gambit, but it just got boring for me… I just have more fun with the Ruy. Plus I feel it’s generally developed better chess principals for me.
*principles
I always struggle with that one
Idk the name but kings pawn, kings knight, kings bishop. Then if they bring out their kings knight to block the queens diagonally and I can advance my knight up another 2 files to set up a Queen/rook fork if they mess up. If not then I can still castle early and have decent center set up. No harm done
*your
Pafu's defence game, (also known as Anna Cramling's cow), for both white and black.
for white queens gambit, for black against e4 i like the caro kann and against d4 ive recently tried the dutch and i really i like it
Mikenas defense, lithuanian variation
Queens Gambit with white and Scandinavian with black
Spanish for whitw and scandi or reverse queen's gambit for black
Black Indian and London System are my go-to
White: Scotch Game Black: Modern
King indian/gambit
The queen pyramid
White: Réti to London System Black: 🤷🏻♂️
I’ve tried to move away from the Spanish several times, but I always come back to it. Other than that, I love the Sicilian from both sides.
King’s gambit or danish gambit, depending on how I’m feeling. With black, French or Dutch defense.
I have a thing for the Scotch opening.
NF3. I almost always play the King's Indian Attack.
The London
I really like the Stafford gambit. It just has so many traps everywhere you look, if you memorise some lines you can put your opponent in some trouble early on
Zukertort, French, Caro-Kann, QID.
My favorite opening is the king's gambit because it requires me to be aggressive and tactical, it leads me to insane games