I saw a match that Bobby Fischer on youtube where he fiachetto'ed (sp?) a black bishop possibly to no reveal what strategy he was to employ.

I've tried this with little luck. I'm obviously not equating my skills to his, but what would be a book/normal progression if my opponent proceeded to develop normally with his knights and c and d pawns?

Thanks,
Neil

I think you mean g6, Bg7. Here's a typical idea in that kind of opening:

1. d4 g6 2. c4 Bg7 3. Nc3 d6 4. e4 Nc6 5. d5 Nd4 6. Be3 c5 7. Nge2 e5

White has a hard time dealing with that knight on d4. If white had thrown in Nf3 instead at some point, black can pin with ...Bg4 and black will still be able to move his knight into d4.

Or you can just go for the more traditional King's Indian Defense:

1. d4 g6 2. c4 Bg7 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. e4 d6 5. Nf3 0-0

The same thing against 1. e4 (usually with d4, but not c4) is called the Pirc or Modern, depending on the move order. As white, I like attacking this with the 150 Attack. I've never really played any fianchetto openings, so I'm not comfortable enough with them to explain why people play them.

--Fromper

Playing this way is a good way to lose quickly and easily unless you have a very solid strategic understanding of the game.

The rule is, if you do not know what you are doing do not try it.
Do not copy moves or strategies without know the why.
That does not mean that start memorizing opening moves.
Rather know the why of each move in an opening.
Get a book that explains each move in the opening.
The older books on the why were by Chernov, and Fine.
Chernov- Logical Chess
Fine- The Idea behind the Openings.
There are newer volumes.

I've heard that a good rule of thumb is to stick with 1. e4 e5 from both sides until you earn your first master title. Of course, I don't do this, so I can't tell you if it's a good rule of thumb.

--Fromper

I always start Nf3 cuz im sick of n00bz in online match Scolar's mating opening. It wins me a pawn and makes them look stupid if they try.

Ive had 60 - 40 with fianchettoing (Perseus: thought I'd help you there) in the opening 60 being win ratio. It helps controll the centre (<- Im canadian) from afar without putting your bishop in danger.

Like Ronaldinho said, if you don't know what your doing, good idea not to try. Don't risk it because having less space than your opponent can have permanent effects later in the game.

If you are still thinking about scholar's mate you shouldn't even know what the word fianchetto means.

I try not to be biased here, but I am a fan of Bobby Fischer! He plays fianchetto openings such as the KIA and King's Indian Defense. the main idea of fianchetto openings is to get the bishop aiming at the long diagonal, which sometimes proved to be dangerous when the long diagonal is pry off by Q-side pawns. Another function for the fianchetto bishop is to protect the King from danger on the g-file. But surely there are some downfalls on this type of opening. the h-file, especially the h6 square is weaken, thus harder to defend on the h-file when you fianchetto. Nevertheless, by looking through the game of the masters of fianchetto opening, such as, Garry Kasparov and Bobby Fischer can give you more information about the opening itself.

Hope you know the fianchetto openings better!

I don't like discourage people from playing new openings. They will learn more through playing them. Surely is not good to imitate some GMs to jus learn an opening for a tournament. But by adopting a new opening will help to know the ideas on how to play different type of positions which will benefit their chess play. No opening is a bad or hard opening lol!