What Are Some Best Openings For Intermediate Level?

Hi! 

In the past year, I've started getting into chess more seriously and would like to find good openings to learn and add to my repertoire. Right now I've started to learn the mainlines of the Scandinavian Defense and London System, and I have touched the Queen's Gambit in the past. Do you have any recommendations for openings? Also, how should I approach learning new openings?

As a goal, I would like to get to the 1500-1600 level. 

White:

Queen Gambit Declined

London System

Colle System

Black:

Modern

Ruy Lopez

Sicilian and its dragon variants

Ruy Lopez is a white opening right?

No opening is a "white" or "black" opening. Every game is a single opening contributed to by both players.

For the Ruy Lopez to occur, White must play 1.e4, Black must play 1...e5, White must play 2.Nf3, Black must play 2...Nc6, and White must play 3.Bb5 (or some weird move order to reach this same position, like 1.Nf3 Nc6 2.e4 e5 3.Bb5.

Either side can completely avoid the Ruy Lopez. I avoid it! I play 1.b4 with White. I answer 1.e4 with 1...e6. And before you go barking that the French Defense is a "Black Opening", it's now! Both player must contribute to a French Defense. White could play 1.d4 and 2.c4 and even if Black played 1...e6, it is NOT a French.

So don't get hung up on labeling an opening as White or Black. No opening pertains to just 1 color.

Okay so you’re ~1200 rapid, familiar with d4 systems? I’d recommend learning tactical openings then. Ruy Lopez, 3. Nc3 French, Two Knights Caro-Kann, and Open Sicilian as White. As Black, KID or Grunfeld against d4 and Dragon or Winawer against e4.

Queen's gambit as it's easy to get (after d4 8/10 games will be d5 and then you play c4) and follows all basic chess principles. With black Caro Kann and Slav.

Thank you this is some good advice

I go in and out of whatever opening I feel like. I prefer focusing on middlegame improvement, but I love most openings. That being said, here are a few to avoid:

Benko Gambit/Benoni Defense

Ruy Lopez, Berlin variation

French, Advance Variation

English

Nimzowitsch Defense after 1.e4

The openings I prefer are:

Italian, (Fried Liver and Evans Gambit)

Spanish, Archangel

Slav Defense

Tarrasch Variation (against both 1.e6 and 1.c6)

This is just a personal opinion - play an opening that suits your style!

Per AlphaZero: Figure 30

1. Ruy Lopez
2. Italian
3. Four Knights
4. Scotch
5. Caro-Kann
6. Nimzovich Defense
7. Petrov
8. Sicilian
9. French
10. Queen's Gambit

6. Nimzovich Defense?

For occasional surprise only. Even Nimzovich don't play this defense much. Or any Modern GMs. Third Tier opening.

This just shows how reliable those AlphaZero articles are. It was just a big scam built on the success of a media hack.

It is not that bad. I enjoy playing the Nimzowitsch, even OTB. I am rated 2000 USCF. Hell, I even played the alekhine's defense otb until I got to 2000. If he enjoys playing a certain third tier opening, and it doesn't lose on the spot, it's good enough.

Modern GMs don't play it because other GMs know how to counter it. I seriously doubt the average 1500 is going to see 1...Nc6 and go, yes, hmm, d4 is a known theoretical inaccuracy and the best second move is Nf3, transposing into a normal e4 e5. And then take advantage of it.

If you play 1... Nc6 regularly, OTB opponent's will notice it and prepare against it or simply play 2. Nf6. If you enjoy the middle game position arising from Nimzovich defense, it doesn't matter if win, draw or loss.

I played Nf3-g3-Bg2-O-O for over a year, every game as white, against opponents in my old state (Alabama) where all the people rated above 1600 know each other by name. I've been prepped against countless times but it doesn't have as much of an impact as people think it does (probably because it's not a forcing opening). As long as you can play good chess in the middlegame, more often than not, you will be fine at our level.

I agree, though, that if you enjoy playing an opening and enjoy the middlegame positions, it doesn't matter what the end result is.

https://www.chess.com/article/view/picking-the-correct-opening-repertoire

He said something very important that people tend to forget: You need to choose something that you like, first and foremost. (that you like = that brings you to a position which you like).

This is a long article by GingerGM, but at the end there's a summary of it - shortcut.

Even when they notice "He's a 1...Nc6 player" he can still alter variations when possible to keep them guessing. Back when I played the Caro Kann I was using 4...Bf5 in the classical but then switched to 4...Nbd7 and later changed to 4...Nf6. In fact, my best results were with 4...Nf6 (followed by 5...exf6), I was playing 4...Nf6 when 4...Nf6 wasn't cool (Barbara Mandrell song in my head as I type this). 4...Nf6 and 5...exf6 is currently the rage, so everyone and their uncles are playing it now. White has come up with a lot of stuff to use against the Caro Kann in modern times so these days I play the 3...Qa5 Scandinavian and have better results with it than with the Caro Kann.

Best Openings For Intermediate Level?

No such thing.

Kamsky using the London System... His life time win rate with the London system was 46.9 % (against mostly GMs no less) In my data base he played it a total of 267 times & won 123 of the games,

further breakdown

against 1...d4 118 games played ... 61 wins that's 51.6% win rate. w/12.7% loss rate

against vs QID played 76 games wins 34, that's a 47% win rate w/14.5% loss rate

against the KID played 67 games wins 28 that's 41.7 % win rate w/12% loss rate

in Kamsky's hands ... the London System was dangerous

King's Indian is best from your statistics. Thanks for the information.

Actually the best win rate is when he played the London against 1...d5 51% win ratio... 37% draw rate and a 12% loss rate.

Still... having a 41% win ratio using the London system against the KID is pretty stellar.

People often see someone loosing to a specific opponent, or loosing playing a specific variation of a defense and not see the overall picture.

Point being is "specifics aside" in OTB play his % of wins using the London was pretty good.