The Best Chess Opening

The Ruy Lopez is a good and solid opening, however, there's a slight problem. It is not easy to learn. You have to be prepared for a whole bunch of responses (Nf6 Berlin, a6 main line, Nd4 Bird, f5 Jänisch Gambit, Nge7 Cozio, Bc5 and so on...).
Sure, it is possible to find decent moves for White in all of these variations, but it is quite a lot of work. That's why some people recommend the Ponziani, which is not bad at all, and easy to learn.

According to my db search, the Ponziani has a similar winning score for white as the Ruy Lopez (41.6%; 40%),
only the percentage of white losses is a little lower in the Ruy Lopez.

@Hurluberlu2 said in #21:
> The Ruy Lopez is a good and solid opening, however, there's a slight problem. It is not easy to learn. You have to be prepared for a whole bunch of responses (Nf6 Berlin, a6 main line, Nd4 Bird, f5 Jänisch Gambit, Nge7 Cozio, Bc5 and so on...).
> Sure, it is possible to find decent moves for White in all of these variations, but it is quite a lot of work. That's why some people recommend the Ponziani, which is not bad at all, and easy to learn.
>
> According to my db search, the Ponziani has a similar winning score for white as the Ruy Lopez (41.6%; 40%),
> only the percentage of white losses is a little lower in the Ruy Lopez.

Ruy Lopez is good but there’s no point learning it until in my opinion 2100 fide (if u interested in playing it): up until 2000/2100 fide improve your understanding of the game, and study this way. It’s a waste to study long theoretical openings bc it’s maybe +0.1 better than the alternative. Because everyone has different styles as well, find an opening that suits you and play that. Even if it is +0.9 for white if you are black, that’s still fine as long as you are comfortable in the position and have more experience. The d6, g6 lines after d4 is a prime example, they are not favoured by engines, but the players who play them (sub gm) are more comfortable in these positions and can extrapolate for a win.

@NordicEstoniaEnjoyer said in #2:
> I think, that there are no best opening. When I used to play chess, I liked playing some openings like Italian and, mentioned in this article, Leningrad variant of Dutch Defense. I never liked gambits, because I HATED being down in terms of material. I sacrificed some pieces maybe 2 times during my 5 year carrer. In both cases, it was a discovered check, after that I won the queen. Maybe it was, because I was a chess player, who loved endgames, who knows?

But maybe this Leningrad was because I found video, that explained many ideas of this variant

The best chess opening is about what ? Central control, Development, closed positions, semi-open positions, open position. gambits. And the list goes on and on....