1...e6 an universal opening system for black

For many years I wanted to find a way to reduce the amount of openings that I played. As a result I decided to play for many years offbeat black systems that, whilst offered an easy set-up, had the concession of giving white a clear edge and lacked the respectability at the top level!

An example of some of the things I played: 

Nevertheless as my rating increased and my play got better, I found myself attached to looking at the different pawn structures in openings and decided to focus on building a repertoire with this in mind. At the same time I was playing around with 1...e6 against 1.e4 and found the french defence to be a viable and flexible option to play against 1.e4. I then wondered what to play against 1.d4 and found that 1...e6 is in fact very much playable against this move and in fact can go into a number of different opening set-up for black: The Nimzo, the Dutch etc. etc. So I decided to build a repertoire around this 1...e6 move and I found that depending on my tastes for that day I could in fact play two strong systems against 1.d4 and 1.e4 that in fact cover around 90% of everything that white can throw at me. By playing the Queen's Gambit declined and going into a fort knox against 1.e4 I can in fact cover nearly everything that white plays and get a solid position that I am comfortable to play in

[Part 1] Introduction: 

[Part 2] The Queen's Gambit declined:

[Part 3] The Fort Knox Variation

I have still got some work to do to finish this repertoire, but this covers quite a lot of theory and allows you to enjoy other aspects of the game.

Enjoy!