Expert: Tony D'Aloisio - 3/3/2011

Question
Hello Tony,

I hope you can help me.  I have played chess a long time, but not very good at it.  I have not played OTB in about 15 years, but plan to start again.  My USCF rating from 15 years ago was about 1300.

What openings would be good to learn for a tournament so I do not have to memorize a lot of lines.  I know the opening principles and can follow them in an opening.  But I am looking for a relatively simple opening for both White and Black that does not have a ton of variations and lines to learn.

Thanks for your help.

David

Answer
As White I might recommend opening with 1 Nf3 2 g3 3 Bg2 4 O-O...as a system having the least amount of opening variations to worry about.  Bear in mind though that if you're not careful with such a system you can end up getting a very cramped game early on.

There is also the London System, but that's usually played against the King's Indian.  You could also try the Bf4 development against the Queen's Gambit, although it would probably not be as effective against the NimzoIndian or Gruenfeld.

With Black I suppose the Caro-Kann is probably the least complicated opening against 1 e4.  Not sure what I would choose against 1 d4, but maybe the Cambridge Springs variation of the Queen's Gambit Declined.  The problem there is that it takes several moves to get to it, so White doesn't have to allow it.

Anyway, it is (unfortunately) pretty difficult to completely avoid opening complications altogether; but I hope at any rate that this has given you some ideas.