Thoughts on Openings I've Been Facing Recently

As I've written in the recent past: Openings Matter. Actually, let me qualify that a bit: I don't think choice of opening decides the game, but if your opponent is playing an opening they are comfortable in and understand - and you are unfamiliar with - they will have an advantage. At the very least, you will be down on the clock early while they blitz out moves.

With that in mind, I want to comment on the openings most often recently "over the board" in classical (G50 and longer) tournament play:

Scandinavian as White

For some reason, people keep playing the Scandinavian as black against my e4. I have to think that this is because it's a fairly aggressive opening, which opens the center and avoids lots of the complex theory of Sicilian, French or e5 openings.

I brought this to my coach, and he observed:

In any line against the Scandinavian, to get the optimal advantage, you have to play very accurately for white....However, playing inaccurately against the Scandivanian means you will need to settle for a draw as white. Not terrible. This is why I didn't like that defense for black. White can play all sorts of things and be fine. Black needs white to make several mistakes to get winning chances.

This has been my experience... the opening is rather "meh" with both sides typically doing boring development after the initial exchanges. Kind of like the French Defense Exchange Variation.

1. Nf3 as Black

I've had several games recently where, as black, my higher-rated opponent played 1. Nf3.

I have to think that they were doing this for the "surprise" factor, thinking that a ~1100 USCF rated opponent would panic at such a "unusual" opening. Or maybe blunder with immediate e5?

Anyway, in both cases I played 1 ... Nf6 and we transitioned to a closed queens-pawn game.

English

I've faced the English at least twice. I have to to think the motivation of my opponent is either to play a "safe" opening or transition to a d4 opening. So far my record has not been good against this, but only because I made some middlegame mistakes - not because my opponent made any kind of aggressive attack.

It seems like this is the choice of a player who wants a slow game where they build up and wait for a blunder.

Catlan-esque

Ok, it's not exactly the Catlan, but it's some kind of Catlanesqe setup where they play d4, Nf3 and g3 - to finachetto their bishop. Sometimes they play c4 but not always.

Usually these are older players. I wonder if they are trying to play a "system" that is "safe" from early tactics and theory. Likewise, a slow game where they want to build up and wait for a blunder.

(Interestingly, I've yet to face the London System even once).

Pirc (but I think they're trying to play the Old Indian?)

Lastly, more than once I've faced a Pirc. Well, I don't think my opponent knew it was a Pirc. I think they are trying to play the "Old Indian Defense" setup against my 1. e4?

I recently learned about the Old Indian defense, and it occurred to me that the initial position is just like the Pirc - the only difference being the location of two of white's pawns.

The difference seems to be that black always goes for a queenside pawn storm - so I have to remember to not ever castle queenside as that's where they will be focusing.

In both openings, the position is almost always closed. So it seems that learning more about pawn structures is inevitable if I continue to face the Pirc/Old Indian.

Conclusions

Openings matter - even at my humble low level. If I want to have a better time in my upcoming games, I should probably study a little more on:

• Scandinavian
• Pirc (and "Old Indian" pawn structures)
• d4 openings with Nf3 and kingside fianchetto
• English

For whatever reason, other chess competitors at my tournament are preparing those openings... I should at least sit down at the board with some idea how to respond.

Afterthought: An interesting research project would be to find the publication date of the most popular YouTube "Best Opening for Beginners!" videos and see if there is a correlation in opening frequency (over time) in the Lichess games database.