My favorite Openings

Welcome to this Blog! Today, I am going to present you my favorite Openings as well as I will talk about what you can take away from this Blog. So let's get started:

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What are Openings?

Alright, this question may seem to be easily answered with: "Openings are the first part of any game - they are the first few moves and have theory to them", but it ain't so simple (well, maybe it is simple but I just want to write about it): The Opening is a major part of the game: It decides, what pieces you will have, what pawn-structure you are going to have and the plan you will create.
An Opening thus decides:

• Your pawn-structure (and your Opponents pawn-structure)
• With which chess-pieces you're going to play (and the pieces of your Opponent)
• Your piece-activity
• Your plan (even in the middle- and endgame)
• If the game is going to be more tactical or more positional
• And, last but not least, if you have any advantage over your Opponent

There are also two special types of Openings: The Gambits and the Systems: While Gambits try to get an early advantage (in most cases, I might add) in form of activity or initiative through material loss (like a pawn), Systems try to always build the same structure - (almost) regardless of what the Opponent plays.
Here is an diagram with all possible first moves for White (the first move isn't necesarrily considered an Opening):

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So, now that we know, what Openings are for, I want to present my favorite Openings.

So, I rank these Openings very subjective (after all, it is my top 10), but I want to take into consideration, how much fun I have playing them, how sound they are, and how effective the Openings are for my play. Of course, all this would differ from person to person, thus this is a very subjective top 10. With that being said, let's get into it:

- Honorable Mentions -

The Scandinavian or (Scandi) is a fun Opening to play with Black, it is definetely sound (well, objectively speaking it isn't, but who really is objective other than the engine?) and it fights for the center from move one.

The Petrov or Russian Game is a pretty solid Opening, that aims for an early liquidation of the center and for equality: It copies White's set up for the most part!

The Nimzo-Indian is a quite ambitious Opening, that utilizes a pin and quickly developes. It's quite similar to the Bogo-Indian-Defense too!

https://lichess.org/study/tgt3wfSt/3B1GXD2q#6

- 10 -

The King's Gambit is one of my favorite Openings ever - not because it is sound, but because it isn't: It is just aggressive and pretty risky, which in turn guarantees lots of fun - well, if you don't mind being down a pawn!

- 9 -

The Italian Game is not only a solid and at the same time tactical Opening, it also is the first ever Opening I have learned. Thus, I hold it in special regards (naturally) and also, it is one of these Openings, where you can find everything: Theory? No theory? A calm and solid Opening? A tactical and aggressive Opening? A Gambit that is perfectly sound? Gambits, that aren't perfectly sound? You got all of these is this old, but gold Opening!

- 8 -

The Caro Kann is an excellent Opening: It is very solid, but also very ambitious! The exchange Variation may be quite similar to a London System set up, but the aggressive Panov Attack is a hyper aggressive try, to get a position with many attacking chances!

- 7 -

The Ruy Lopez - or the Spanish - is an old but still top notch Opening and one of my favorites. It has huge amounts of theory and lots of diversity - from the exchange variation to the more ambitious Archangelsk variation to the solid endgame of the Berlin to the heated battle in the Marshall Gambit. This is a serious Opening that has been played by many former champions and still is played on the top levels!

- 6 -

The Mighty London System is one of my all time favorite Opening-Systems! Although it sometimes is called boring, I do not think so in the slightest: It is an interesting, very solid and flexible System, that also allows some attacking chances to arise. I actually have made a study about the London System, this study is called: The Mighty London System! Check it out, if you haven't already! (Sorry fo this shameless self promotion, but I just wanted to show, that this Opening is one of my all time favorites.) To add to this, it's the only 1.d4 Opening that I really like (for White).

- 5 -

The Grünfeld Defense is a so called theory-jungle, but this Opening still is a good, solid as well as tactical, ambitious and fun way to play the game of chess: The main line is an enjoyable Opening that guarantees chances for both partys - unless a forced sideline must be played to archieve a quick draw. All in all, the Grünfeld has stood the test of time numerous times and - as complicated astis Opening is - is very nice Opening

- 4 -

The Scotch-Gambit (as well as the Scotch Game) is one of my favorite Openings against 1...e5, if not my absolute favorite: This Gambit is so sound, that it sometimes isn't considered to be a true Gambit. If Black can hang on to the pawn, White gets all the developement and active pieces; If White can regain the pawn, it is equal material. This Gambit is a very fun, but at the same time solid Opening choice.

- 3 -

The King's Indian Defense, or KID for short, is definetely in my "top 3 favorite Openings" spot: It has everything I like: A fianchetto Bishop, great counterattacking chances, a Kingside attack, a pawn storm, a safe King and it is just a blast, everytime I play this Opening. Engines say, it is a little unsound, but this is all part of the fun. Of course, this Opening was played by great World Champions and is always able, to teach you an important lesson: Be it how attacking in closed positions work or how you can use over-extending as a positional advantage, the KID always amazes me. A great deal of the KID also seems to be psychological: Either the Opponent does not want to be attacked or you yourself fear, that h4 and the rest will shred open your King's castle. Nethertheless, this Opening is way up there.

- 2 -

The Sicilian as a whole (well, maybe not the Dragon) deserves a spot in this Top 10 - and I can safely say, that I like to play this Opening with either color. The Acclerated Dragon as well as some closed positions are very interesting, but my favorite Sicilian is the popular and beloved: Sicilian Defense: Najdorf Variation! This Variation is found very easily, it might even the most well known Sicilian of them all! And many World class players as well as Wolrd Chess Champions have played this aggressive and positional sound variation throughout their career. If you have never seen a good game with this Opening, you are really missing out.

- 1 -

My number one Opening, the Opening I like the most is the infamous, aggressive and reversed-color-KID System: The KIA! The King's Indian Attack is a very good system, that opts for a Kingside attack and can be played calmly (it can be transformed into a Réti sometimes), but more importantly it can lead to a crazy attack on the King - which is the point of this Opening! Also, it is very similar to the KID, because it is basically the KID but with reversed colors! This Opening is just an allrounder - and it will always result in interesting positions!

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So, now you have seen my favorite Openings. I wonder, if some of them make yours list too...
But now we have to adress one of the major parts of Opening-usage:

The Repertoire and Preparation

An Opening Repertoire is simply put a collection of Openings, their main- and sidelines and even dubious lines, that are played by the player: The player uses this repoirtore frequently and the Openings in it are the "go-to" Openings for the player. Over time, the player may choose to expand or change the repertoire through using different ("a new") Opening. Serious repertoires, at least that's what I believe, are structured accordingly to frequency of the played line, according to the soundness and especially according to the players liking. The player will also most likely note down memorable games for each Opening - be it master games or the games of the player - and write own thoughts, engine recommendations and the general ideas and principals to each Opening(line).

But Preparation is also a part of the repertoire and does exactly what it says: Preparing Openings. So, how can Openings be prepared, given that they have already theory? The preparation simply scouts out Opponents and prepares against them. E.g.: Player A plays the French, but doesn't know the exchange variation very good, player B wants to prepare against A through preparing a French exchange variation! And preparation uses choices by the engine, as well as it is dependant on the Opponent. Sometimes, there can be created new theory through "prep", and often people see prep as something bad - which indeed makes some sense, because through the prep chess, the player doesn't think that much anymore - at least OTB! And thus, the preparation is often seen as something necessary, which at the same time has some negative aspects. Through databases, preparation has become much more easy and accessible, as such, the Lichess Personal Opening Explorer or Openingtree have become quite popular, but also the Chessbase databases has increased in popularity. A exessive prepared Opening-line is sometimes callled a "Weapon".
After all, Standard Chess isn't Chess960, where you more or less ignore any Opening theory.

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Key take away points:

• Openings are Important - but don't really help the improvement of the chess-ability
• Openings are different - there are Systems, Gambits, Dubious, Solid, Sound Openings
• There are entire "theory jungles" around some Openings
• Openings have more to them than theory - entire plans and ideas are part of them
• By deciding Openings we can influence middle- and endgame plans, structures, pieces
• To choose Openings, experiencing many Openings and middlegames is an advantage
• Creating a Repertoire can increase Opening knowledge
• Preparation has increased in popularity and accessability
• Preparation may be regarded as unnatural or impressive
• Outpreparing "prep" is sometimes required to play a normal game of chess
• No Opening is perfect and no Opening is losing from the beginning
• White can choose from 20 moves for their first one, Black can do so aswell
• The choice of favorite Openings is subjective
• Chess960 normally doesn't use any Opening theory

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Look at this quote by Bobby Fischer:

"1.e4 - best by test"

Although, 1. e4, 1.d4, 1.c4 and 1. Nf3 are the best Opening moves and by far the most popular, 1. e4 is a little more popular than the other first moves.

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I hope that you liked this Blog, there might be a Part 2 coming in the future, I can't really tell though! So, here you go! With this said, Thank you for reading! Have a nice day and think a little about Openings (or even play some)!