philaretus
40 ( +1 | -1 ) .One of the best ways of acquiring positional sense is to play the French Defence against 1.e4. Against other openings I also play 1...e6. This sometimes also leads to the French Defence, sometimes to other openings. For instance, 1.d4 e6 2.e4 (French Defence), or 1.d4 e6 2.c4 d5 (Queen's Gambit). This simplifies one's game as Black a great deal.
As for playing as White, I've given up in despair, so it no longer concerns me. :/
verticalchess
55 ( +1 | -1 ) I have focused onjust playing 3 openings and 3 main defenses so that I can learn the main lines and variations. I have knowledge of many others but I want to have a more condensed opening/defensive repertoire.
As White:
(d4) Colle System/Stonewall Formation (c4) English Opening (e4) Roy Lopez / Closed Sicilian - (if black responds with c5)
As Black:
Against e4 - Sicilian Defense Against d4 - King's Indian/Pirc Defense/Dutch Against all others I will usually transpose based on what other opening knowledge I have.
drgandalf
29 ( +1 | -1 ) white_discverticalchess is about 400 points higher than you. So, you should take his/her advise very seriously. I am only slightly higher than you. So, my advise would generally not be as profitable. Stick with the advice of those about 400 points higher.
anaxagoras
125 ( +1 | -1 ) mco-14 has the following classifications:
double king pawn openings semi-open games (asymetrical developments e.g. caro-kann, tarrasch, sicilian etc.) double queen pawn openings indian openings flank openings i.e. english, among others
The author reccomends that benoni-type lines should be avoided if you're learning some of your first black defenses. Supposedly, it requires expertise to handle because of the center advantage given to white. Check out: board #842199&r=231" target="_blank">gameknot.com/chess.pl?board #842199&r=231
Your other choices sound just fine, though the task of learning the enormously diverse and complicated ruy lopez and sicilian openings is a large one. My modestly amateur repretoire is:
As White
1.d4 qgd, catalan (to avoid the queen's indian and nimzo-indian) slav, and i also fianchetto against the king's indian (1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. g3...), trying to learn the gruenfeld.
and if I feel like it (sometimes) 1. Nf3 or 1. c4
As Black
caro kann against 1.e4 Nimzo Indian or blumenfeld gambit vs 1.d4
verticalchess
21 ( +1 | -1 ) Does anyone know..of a book that has all of the known openings - somewhat of an encyclopedia of chess opening repertoires. I'm looking for a large book that goes into lengthy detail and shows variations for all of the openings to date.
anaxagoras
22 ( +1 | -1 ) MCO-14 stands for "Modern Chess Openings" by Nick de Firmian. It is an encyclopedia: it will convince you that in the realm of chess opennings will always encounter unknown possibilities and actually have to think out what to do! ;-)
nimzoredivivus
98 ( +1 | -1 ) I havea core of but two openings: Nimzowitsch Attack as white and Owen's/English Defense as Black. Both are hypermodern based on the Queen Fianchetto and have similar strategic ideas.
Pick a white opening you like to play. Is it closed or open in nature? And do the same with a black opening you like to play. If you like closed openings, then look at variations that are closed to play. For example, if you like the closed Ruy Lopez then you will want to pick variations that lead to closed positions against the French, Caro-Kann, etc.
I like reciprocal openings as it minimizes having to learn many different variations. So if you like the KID as black, you might want to play the King's Indian Attack as white and the Pirc/Modern against 1. e4.
Check out www.ex.ac.uk/~dregis/DR/Openings/openwb. html for other similar white and black openings.