If your fairly new to chess and looking for an opening I would defenitly go with an opening system like Kings Indian Attack or the Colle.

Some advise on here says to use the Guioco or the Ruy, which doesn't make since to me beause I have never played the black side to either opening. I open with a sicilian with e4. So a system will work much better than starting out e4.

Just be careful when you play a system to think about your moves and not to play robotically. If you're preplanning your first 8-10 moves, then you could miss a point where you have a chance to take advantage of a bad move by the other player or they may be able to develop in a way that causes problems with your own setup.

I notice that a lot of people say that learning openings as a beginner is bad, which may be a bit of an overgeneralization. When learning an opening make sure that you understand the ideas behind it so that if someone plays a dubious non-book move, you'll know how to take advantage of it.

So my theory is that it's ok to learn openings early on in your development as long as you understand them.

Many very good chess teachers actually advocate learning gambits at first...not because you should memorize all the theory for a given gambit, but because it is good for development of your general play.

Also, gambits are sort of like "systems," it's just that the "idea" behind the system is "Find something to kill!!" Since developing players should be honing those tactics anyway, it makes a lot of sense.

The Colle is easy enough to learn, which allows you to concentrate on other areas. The problem with the Colle is that sometimes you have to abandon it because the Colle isn't good against some defenses.

If you are truely a beginner you won't have to worry about the anti Colle's but as you play better people, you will run into them. At this time you can start to learn other d4 openings to transpose into after black decides you should take the advantage with something like the Barry.

I really like my decision to play the Colle. I get plenty of exposure to the e4 e5 aspect of the game as black. About half of my games are e4 games, the other half are d4 games.

At other fora I, and fellow amateurs some wiser than I, discussed the use and usefulness of instant-noodles systems like the Colle. Guaranteed not to get you totally lost in five minutes it says on the package. But you'll learning nothing about cooking that way and will develop cooking abilities at a very slow rate (if at all).

My advice, don't use it as your main opening. Use it only a little besides that if you really have to but never become dependant on it.

If that's your line of reasoning then I'd say studying and memorizing openings also leads to people learning nothing.

As I said earlier, learning the Colle does not mean you turn your brain off for the first handful of moves. You've still got to learn how to adjust when black throws anti-colle openings your direction.

As I said earlier, learning a basically simple opening allows the beginner to spend time doing other things such as devoting more time training tactics and end-game.

Just to be clear here...we are talking about the c3-Colle here, right? Not the b3-Colle. [The Colle-Koltanowski versus the Colle-Zukertort]

I would say that "system" openings can teach people plenty if they are approached in the right way.

For example, it teaches the idea that chess study can be made easier by understanding that certain positions call for different ideas. Of course, the student must understand that the system he or she is using may only present a few of these themes for constant use and that eventually there is a need to investigate others, but as a general goal the idea of breaking chess strategy into types of positions with attendant themes and plans certainly has SOMETHING to recommend it.

Secondly, most systems allow White smooth development at the cost of initiative. A Colle player will understand WHY e4 is needed, for example. Understanding the importance of piece play and development is itself a pretty useful idea for early players.

On a related note, most systems emphasize particular piece play over pawn play. The idea of "not putting your piece on an awkward square" has been identified by Aagaard as an under-appreciated maxim for strong play.

Do I expect most beginners to see and gain these things from using a plug-n-play opening? No. But as part of a growing/development program they certainly have some merit.

And a player can then graduate to some other thematic opening that requires deeper understanding to play well while still being relatively easy to understand in principle. For example, the Benko Gambit or Colle-Zukertort

Grocking why the Benko is so resilient involves a fair amount of good, quality understanding of middle-game and (moreso) end-game play.

There is lots to learn from Gambit openings as well...it's just a different kettle of fish. So maybe you should suggest a newer player to go with the Colle on White and, say, the Smith-Morra on Black.

Hmm..did I actually just suggest someone actually play the Smith-Morra?

Zuker,

I'm afraid both the c3 and b3 Colle would be classified as systems. Or as Perseus likes to decribe them, "instant-noodles".

I suppose he prefers making his noodles from scratch.

Ummm... the Smith-Morra Gambit is an opening for white, not black.

And what's wrong with the SMG, anyway? My last tournament win came from playing it.

Personally, I tend to disagree with the "one size fits all" approach to openings. Not all players will be best served by playing the same openings. I think each player needs to examine their strengths and weaknesses, and decide what it is they want to get out of an opening. Need to learn how to attack better? Play gambits. Need to learn endgames? Try quieter lines. Don't have much time for opening study? Stick with a "system" opening. Want to become a grandmaster? Take the time to really study the details of main line openings.

For beginners, I think that they need to learn tactics before anything else, so playing gambits is probably the way to go. After being a quiet, defensive player and getting stuck in my improvement, I started playing wild, unsound gambits that taught me to attack properly and allowed me to make some serious improvement in my play. Now I'm focused on learning other things, so I'm dumping most of the gambits from my opening repertoire and playing quieter lines, except the Smith-Morra, which is both fun to play and probably the soundest of the gambits I've played.

--Fromper

Hi Greg!

Well I just spoke with GM Akobian regarding your question, and as usual, I learned something.

Gm Akobian recommends E4. Doesn't matter what opening it is as long as the player learns what they can about the opening to build a foundation. D4. is not recommended as much for White as the beginner as White has less control regarding Black's response.

Bottom line: Learn sound fundamentals, (Development of pieces, opening lines against the enemy King, etc.). And study Endgames and TACTICS...

Or... Basically what Silidef said...

Best,
Thomas

Holy Vacuum Cleaner Batman!

We have another genuinely advanced intellect among us.

My most gracious welcome AntiStatic..... (This thread page 2)

Please go on...

Thomas