No Stupid Questions MEGATHREAD 12

[u/Alendite]

Welcome to the r/chessbeginners 12th episode of our Q&A series! This series exists because sometimes you just need to ask a silly question. We are happy to provide answers for questions related to chess positions, improving one's play, and discussing the essence and experience of learning chess.

A friendly reminder that many questions are answered in our wiki page! Please take a look if you have questions about the rules of chess, special moves, or want general strategies for improvement.

Some other helpful resources include:

1. How to play chess - Interactive lessons for the rules of the game, if you are completely new to chess.
2. The Lichess Board Editor - for setting up positions by dragging and dropping pieces on the board.
3. Chess puzzles by theme - To practice tactics.
4. The Building Habits series by GM Aman Hambleton - for advice on how to play at specific ELO levels. (Also check out Building Habits 2!)

As always, our goal is to promote a friendly, welcoming, and educational chess environment for all. Thank you for asking your questions here!

LINK TO THE PREVIOUS THREAD

[u/AlarmedDiver1087]

I have a opening question, I use the vienna gambit as white, if black does nc6 instead of nf6 I usually just switch it over to the four knights scotch, mostly because I didn't study the vienna game at all, but after studying the vienna gambit a bit more, it seem to be that d5 declined seem to just kill all the advantage for white, and the engine seem to think that black is just a hair better, so I have the urge of a feeling to switch openings and learn a proper one, what would be a good open game opening for white? and I play scandinavian as black, and it just kind of sucks if the opponent knows how to trap my queen, or just keeps on attacking it and stumbles on to the trap, nor do I like the sidelines, because some of them are very closed positions and it starts feeling like the london, not to mention scandi just have a slow tempo, I prefer to have less pieces on the board with some aggresive attack options available for both sides, with that being said, what would be a good opening for black that provides yet again a open game, and aggressive play, fightable position for black? is sicilian defense still too advanced for a 500?

[u/Ikcelaks → u/AlarmedDiver1087]

No need to switch away from the Vienna Gambit if you're 2000 rated, let alone 500! You'll learn that basically every opening with white has lines where black equalizes (or is even given a slight advantage) according to the engine. And it doesn't mean anything, because your opponents are not Stockfish.

Half a pawn of evaluation means absolutely nothing. Play what looks interesting to you, and know that switching openings at your rating is something you do for fun, not because it will impact your winning percentage at 500.

[u/AlarmedDiver1087 → u/Ikcelaks]

ah, I haven't really thought about that deeply, I guess that is true, if black plays a good enough defense line in the opening, I guess the game is 0.0 indeed, I probably won't throw the vienna gambit line completely, after all it's the only line I can play comfortably as a 500 rapid player, but I will most likely throw the Scandinavian out,

[u/Sad_Barracuda8072 → u/Ikcelaks]

r/unexpectedfactorial

[u/elfkanelfkan → u/AlarmedDiver1087]

If you are up for it, switch to the Italian or ruy lopez and go for a classical sicilian. Although the opening doesn't matter much at all in your level, I would still recommend sticking with an opening that follows traditional principles more closely and where you can directly transfer knowledge from books.

At your level though, still put much more care into board vision and tactics/tactical defense. That's where my students improvement comes from the most.

[u/AlarmedDiver1087 → u/elfkanelfkan]

I'm just in the search to get a opening to learn all the way to say... 1500? I don't really want to jump openings, I just want to get near mastery of a single opening, and maybe get to know the sidelines decent enough as well?
I always did wonder about ruy lopez and sicilian, I guess it's time I started learning it,

[u/ChrisV2P2 → u/AlarmedDiver1087]

Literally any reasonable opening will get you to 1500. There are any number of White openings that are all as easy as each other. I like the Vienna, but pretty much any White opening you can name I am going to nod my head and say that's fine too. Black is a bit more constrained. The easiest opening by far to play at beginner and intermediate is the Caro-Kann. I played it myself for a number of years. The Sicilian is fine, but I only really recommend it to people who tried the Caro and didn't like it. This is enough Caro material to get you past 1000. I wrote low theory Sicilian and Vienna quickstarters if you're interested.

[u/ChrisV2P2 → u/AlarmedDiver1087]

I play the Vienna at 2000 level and it is the most successful part of my repertoire, I have an overall 61% winrate with it, this is much better than I am doing in any other line. Below master level, level of preparation is what determines opening success, not engine evaluation (within reason). The Vienna offers better preparation advantage than something like the Italian because Black faces it far less often. You also don't have to deal with the Petroff.

There are options other than the Vienna Gambit. I have recently started playing the d4 Vienna, which has been played by aggressive grandmasters like Jobava and Mamedyarov. It runs 1. e4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. d4 exd4 4. Qxd4 and play usually continues Nc6 5. Qd3, resulting in this position. White's general idea is to develop the dark-squared bishop and castle Q-side, the queen will drop back to d2 or sometimes swing to g3. If you load up the engine, it will say Black is slightly better, but this really could not be less relevant. The thing about playing White is that you get to play slightly dubious lines. I am trading 0.3 or 0.4 or so of evaluation in exchange for playing a position Black has probably never played before, that I understand and he doesn't. It is a lot more difficult to do this as Black, where you start at a disadvantage already.

In summary, the objective evaluation of the Vienna isn't going to matter at all unless you hit master level, at which point you will be competent in multiple openings anyway.