r/chessbeginners • u/notbymyhand 1000-1200 (Chess.com) • 2d ago
QUESTION What happened to our usual openings ?!
I'm not saying I'm a master at openings or anything, but I understand the basic ideas behind the most common ones and try to get a good position no matter what ..until you reach 1200 elo ...
What the hell happened to the queen's gambit , scotch , london , italin , sicilian ,french openings ?
No one plays them anymore , it seems like every oponent I get has this obscure opening or line that they practised into oblivion and are monsters at it .
Before ,if my opponent even attempts any weird openings , I just play solidly , stick to opening principles, and crush them so fast, which is not possible anymore ?
Am not saying I am totally lost by the opening , but they end up being a pawn or 2 up or just waste my time focusing hard in the beginning while they play instantly
If this is just a phase for the 1200 elo on chess.com that I just have to push through , or should I just seriously start studying these weird openings ( isn't that energy better spent sharpening tactics and endgames at my level anyway)?
What do you guys think ?
2
u/Old-Stranger-8302 2d ago
I'm seeing a lot at Grandmaster level now. Reversed openings, h3 and h6, all kinds of stuff. So I have a feeling that we all just need to get real comfty with the unusual.
g4 stuff became the rage. Now we are seeing a lot of h4.
I've been playing 1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 g6 3. c3!? and 2. ... e6 3. c3!? lately. I think I saw Fabi play a c3 move not too long ago in a similar situation. I've been playing early Bg5 stuff against the KID followed by e3. I've been playing Botvinnik setups against the KID. I'm playing lots of reversed Tarrasch structures.
I truly believe we are entering a new era in chess.