favourite opening

[gwnn]

I mean surely this is more interesting than the one about starships.

[hrothgar]

I always liked the English Opening (sometimes, I'd play Reti)

[vuroth]

Queen's Gambit as white. Trying to learn the Dutch at black.

[OleBerg]

Reading the title, my thoughts immidiately went below the belt.

 

And then it's chess?!

 

Anyway, I din't know the game, so I'll try 3♥.

[Lobowolf]

The Najdorf should really be its own category.

[Cyberyeti]

When I was playing at a reasonable level, I had a repertoire of really sharp nasty openings, when I played less I reverted to some more off beat stuff like 1 b4.

 

My repertoire was:

 

1 e4 intending:

 

King's gambit, ideally double Muzio v e5

Morra v c5

Milner-barry v e6

 

With black I'd play:

 

Sicilian, ideally Polugayevsky variation of Najdorf (I was 12/12 or so with this)

King's indian, Gurgenidze type system or later polish v d4

[Gerben42]

When I played chess, I always played black in competition and played the French opening. When white I would hope for something simple :)

[dicklont]

I've always liked the Open Variation (5. ...., Nxe4) for black in the Ruy Lopez.

[MFA]

I suck at chess openings. A little better with the mid- and endgame. I once read a book in German about the King's Indian, even though I don't really speak German, so that opening got my vote. :)

[luke warm]

i liked a reverse k's indian type opening w/ white, looking to close the center (counter intuitive, i know)... w/ black i preferred the nimzo, k's indian, grunfield vs. Q pawn, the pirc or najdorf vs. K pawn... of course it all depends on who you're playing and whether or not it's a tourney or for fun

[kenrexford]

Stumble bunny for me.

[Trinidad]

When I played chess (ages ago) I didn't have much time to study openings. So I tried to play similar structures. I found that I could do that when I played Dutch with black and Bird (f2-f4) with white.

 

Rik

[gwnn]

That's what I'm doing Trinidad :lol: and trying to learn Alekhine and maybe Center-Counter.

[gwnn]

The Najdorf should really be its own category.

The Najdorf is awesome but White has so many good anti sicilian lines I think it's almost impossible to learn them all.

[Rossoneri]

No one else likes Scotch?

[NickRW]

I never played enough chess to really get into having a distinct preference, but I tended to like flank openings and defences - so I voted English.

 

I used to be comfortable with really pretty much any opening as I was better from a strategic point of view - rather than the tactical elements of the mid and end game. I guess I'm the same with Bridge - more comfortable with the ins and outs of bidding theory and hand valuation than the niceties of squeezes.

 

Nick

[gwnn]

I guess I'm the same with Bridge - more comfortable with the ins and outs of bidding theory and hand valuation than the niceties of squeezes.

(in my opinion:) Opening theory in chess most closely resembles a system file since you can prepare both away from the table. Also its structures are somewhat similar, they're both describable by graphs. It's true that hand valuation resembles chess strategy, but niceties of squeezes would rather be some sort of queen sacrifice that works in a (relatively small) family of positions; Legal's mate springs to mind, but I'm sure there are more eloquent examples.

 

If you entertain me for a moment by accepting that opening theory is similar to a bidding system, then I'd say that "I don't like bidding systems, I just bid naturally and add a few conventions" is similar to "I don't like chess openings, I just try to occupy the centre and bring out my knights and bishops and castle and then try to make a plan".

[blackshoe]

Single malt?

[dicklont]

If you entertain me for a moment by accepting that opening theory is similar to a bidding system, then I'd say that "I don't like bidding systems, I just bid naturally and add a few conventions" is similar to "I don't like chess openings, I just try to occupy the centre and bring out my knights and bishops and castle and then try to make a plan".

No, bidding naturally is the basic opening approach you describe, adding a few conventions would be like: and I studied the Najdorf and the Kings Indian.

[gwnn]

Sure but you can't bid naturally with absolutely no convention. 1 over 1 forcing is already a convention.

 

I think adding a few conventions would mean that you know that

e4-c5

Nf3-d6

d4-cxd4

Nxd4-Nf6

Nc3-a6

 

is called "Najdorf"

 

and you know what Black's first 6 moves should be in the KI

[luke warm]

No one else likes Scotch?

if i played like morphy did i probably wouldn't mind playing the scotch gambit... didn't fischer pretty much end the scotch? i might be thinking of something else

[MikeRJ]

I used to get pretty good results with the Benko gambit, but it is 20 yrs since I played much chess. I expect it is out of fashion now.

[jjbrr]

i like scotch among many other things

[Hanoi5]

No one else likes Scotch?

With soda and ice.

[NickRW]

No one else likes Scotch?

With soda and ice.

Ach. Sacrilege. Not a single scottish malt. With a little water or with nothin.