What was the first opening you learned and do you still play it?

Italians, yeah I play them from time to time even tho I'm mostly a 1.d4 player.

I used to play the Van't Kruijs. Then I learned what an opening is and started playing d4 as white. I currently play the English Opening @Professor74 as white (I started a team for it, BTW) and I play all sorts of things as black: the Najdorf Sicilian, the Horowitz (e6 against d4, which can go Dutch, French, or NID) the old Benoni, and the French.

I also drew a 1900 as black with the Duras gambit: 1.e4 f5?. That was fun.

I never learned opening names, but I played lots of Finachetto combinations to castle early. It made the chess games last longer.

I was young when I learned about the three opening golden rules. It has helped me improve my openings without even knowing anything about pawn structures.

My games improved when I started believing that each piece was unique and had a particular task to perform. If you do not know why you have a particular piece. Play without it and discover why you need it.

As jonesmh #4 reminded me the Stonewall Attack was the first opening I learned. I don't play it that often any more.

Yeah, the Stonewall is very ambitious, and with proper preparation, it's easy to defeat.

@SirDillyMoves #15
Stonewall easy to defeat ? Interesting to hear that. Please tell me more, and show some example games. Thanks.

King side stone wall, the knight outpost is on e5.
Queen side stone wall, the knight outpost is on d5.
The bad bishop is blocked by their own pawns.

The first opening (and actually my first ever tutorial I looked up on the game) was the King's Gambit. It's a really fun opening and I do still play it (I have about 70% win-rate with KGA). The key to this opening is knowing a lot of lines and be willing to sacrifice.

I've never tried the King's gambit. As white I mainly get to play the Ruy lopez so I might look into learning the KG. Is it actually refuted at top level or just a draw? I think I read that Fischer wrote an article debunking it at top levels.

I only started playing chess regularly back in January when I discovered Lichess - at the old age of 24. I pushed pieces around to see what would happen and, after numerous crushing defeats, I decided to learn how to play properly. Since then I have been studying opening lines and how to play - mainly through Chessable and various YouTube videos.

With white I play 1. e4 and hope for an Italian Game.
As black I play the Caro-Kann against 1. e4 and 1...Nf6 against 1. d4.

So I guess you could say I still play my first openings(!)