Building a repertoire around e5.

Hey yall,

I've always wanted to respond to 1.e4 with 1.e5, and after 2.Nf3 with 2.Nc6, but I was wondering what is best for white's responses. I understand that there will be a fair bit of memorization involved, but which lines should I choose that have plans I can use best? 

This is for black btw.

Check out 1.e4 e5 by Ntirlis. I created a study on it but haven't gotten around to finishing it as I am a French player and wanted to read his French book instead. Nevertheless, I still found the book very well organized and will help you get a good position in the opening. I will say that I did add two comments from pfren with regards to the Halloween Gambit and the Vienna Game which are mentioned in the study. Other than those two, he said the book was very good

@1

"respond to 1.e4 with 1.e5, and after 2.Nf3 with 2.Nc6, but I was wondering what is best for white's responses" ++ Ruy Lopez 3 Bb5, Italian 3 Bc4, Scotch 3 d4, Four Knights 3 Nc3

"there will be a fair bit of memorization involved"
++ No, you do not need to memorise. Just play and analyse your lost games.

"but which lines should I choose that have plans I can use best?"
++ There are many viable ways to chose from. 
3 Bb5 Nf6, 3...a6, 3...d6, 3...Nge7, 3...Nd4, 3...f5, 3...g6, 3...Bc5
3 Bc4 Nf6, 3...Bc5, 3...Be7, 3...d6
3 d4 exd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6, 4...Bc5, 4...Be7, 4...Qh4
3 Nc3 Nf6 4 Bb5 Bb4, 4...Nd4

Perhaps but it is still a very good option to play. Also, that is super engines beating super engines and realistically, you won't be facing one. On top of that, most people don't even play the most challenging move Nc3 or Nd2 (at least at my level) allowing you to equalize most of the time. But even with Nc3 or Nd2, it is a very double-edged (more so the Nc3 lines) and even I struggle against the Steinitz Defense as it is very positionally sound

@8

Most challenging are 1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 Nc3 or 3 e5
3 Nd2 c5 is harmless, as Korchnoi has demonstrated against Karpov in 9 World Championship match games, all draws
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1068085 

No, one win does not constitute a refutation.

Bb5 is the best, but also there are few other good moves like d4, Bc4, Nc3, so in order to play 1...e5 2...Nc6 you should  be prepared to face each of them.

what sort of repertoire are you looking for (do you like to gambit or play solid)? and what is your rating?

Scotch is easier to play and learn rather than Italian and Spanish as white

That is true and in Keep It Simple, he suggests the Scotch for tat reason. I don’t play much e5 but when I do, I struggle a lot more with the Scotch than the Ruy Lopez or Italian

I am looking to get aggressive and take the fight to white so maybe e5 is not the best option.

It depends on YOUR STYLE of play. Me, I'm despising the marshall scandinavian because of the 2.e5 straight jacket. WHY isn't it called the scandinavian advance?!!! I want to play 1...e5 soooo bad, but there's way too much theory involved to take on the rousseau gambit which is sooo much more "my style" as a player who lives for king's gambit games. I also want to play the luccini, calabrese and jaenish/schliemann ...f5 themed countergambits too, but NOT the "steal my castle & chase my queen!" latvian gambit. I was grabbing games in 8 moves a lot with it, at first until people started prepping and turned the tables on me more often than not.

 

you could always adopt the "universal" king's indian which is "good against anything from either side of the board", but there's a lot of theory there. 

 

just try looking at games in various openings and see what one looks most appealing to you. if you want to drive ME nuts, play the french or carokann and decline any and all gambits! no one will accept the monte carlo and after i did some booking up on the alapin diemer, all of a sudden in my 1st 2 attempts, no one wants to take on d4 anymore.

 

ironically enough, the statistically strongest reply to king's gambit is the falkbeer countergambit, but i eat those up for lunch. it's the pawn pushing declineds that get me... particularly 2...Nc6

 

Against the French, I’d recommend playing the Mainline Alekhine-Chatard Attack, playing for the Albin-Chatard Gambit. It follows traditional theory, and you could get stuck playing a Winawer or a Burn variation, but if you can get the Albin-Chatard you get to develop your all of your pieces easily and open the h-file for your rook, while Black has no pieces developed and no way to develop them quickly. 

if you want to play aggressive why not play a gambit?

that is not seam like good rationale to me cause you dont play like alpha zero and your opponent wont play like stockfish.

Try to play scoth 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 and then 3. d4. In my humble opinion, when playing scoth as white is very comfortable, u can either play normal scoth game, after 3. d4 exd4 4. Nxd4 or a scoth gambit, after black capture 3. exd4 4. Bc4. It is a very sharp line

I use the Pirc against e5 (…d6). It’s a little bit passive but it rules out most of the e4 openings your opponent may have prepared.

QUOTE:  Against the French, I’d recommend playing the Mainline Alekhine-Chatard Attack, playing for the Albin-Chatard Gambit. It follows traditional theory, and you could get stuck playing a Winawer or a Burn variation, but if you can get the Albin-Chatard you get to develop your all of your pieces easily and open the h-file for your rook, while Black has no pieces developed and no way to develop them quickly. 

 

i'll look into that. i QUIT the monte carlo because french cowards absolutely REFUSE to accept a gambit and hide behind their pawns like frightened weasels. I'm having the same problem trying to play the alapin diemer now as french cowards force the franco sicilian, afraid to come out of their hobbit holes and fight like men.

i was liking the alapin diemer because it's related to the blackmar diemer agaist the scandinavian as well as maroczy fantasy carokann, making for a nice unified system against those 3 defenses. as a king's gambit player, early Nf3s & Bc4s for swift attacks on f7 along with rooks on open f files are right in my comfort zone. I also like that the alapin and maroczy are relatively "theory light" besides transposing between each other sometimes

i'm NEVER quitting king's gambit or smith morra against the sicilian, even if i can't win 90% of my games with the same basic Qe2/Rd1/Rc1 setup I used when I first learned it. nowadays, it's a maze of transpositions, but I'm finding awesome theory that leads to advantage a lot of the time. I wanted to get back and continue building my theory for that today.

i don't even use book against the alekhine. i'm 100% wins using the krejcik... a bishop sac on f7 on move 3, right up my alley. it's 50:50 for everyone, but i'm 6 for 6 so far and as a king's gambiteer and lover of double edged lines, i think it's better suited for me than others. my stats against the falkeer countergambit are much better than others too. it's the positional based declined gambit lines that drive me nuts in ANYTHING.

i live or die by the initiative for the most part.

if you're an aggressive player and don't mind risk, i recommend those gambits.

i', going to look at the alekhine chatard french though. I was just thinking about looking for a NEW system against the french that CAN'T be sidestepped, even if I can't gambit or create the wide open center I crave. from what I recall, winawer is the most solid agressive line against the french, and if it can sometimes transpose to gambits, it might be worth a try.

i do kick butt, so far, in the alapin diemer, but i only have a couple games in it it and a bunch of annoying 3...c5 franco sicilians. just take my e pawn dagummit so I can play f3!!!! ARRRRRGH!

 

huh! at 60:40 in 10 alapin attempted games, i'm doing better than I though! maybe I should stick with it, just to keep my theory simple

 

Ruy Lopez: Marshall or Archangelesk

Italian: Two knights-try to draw Ng5 and play the Polerio

My anti-Caro-Kann recommendation is similar to this concept. It stems from the Breyer but it was pioneered by Johnathan Schrantz so I'm calling it the Breyer-Schrantz Gambit. Much like the Benko Gambit, there are multiple ways Black can play this.
This is the Fully Accepted, if you can get this you can win straight out of the opening 90% of the time.

Here are the equalizing moves in the Fully Accepted. Some of these are better than others but all of them will equalize. You will be a pawn down with good development. In some variations, you can take the pawn on h6 and the bishop on f8. This will prevent Black from castling and gain you the bishop pair and your pawn back in exchange for developing Black's rook on the semi-open h-file.

Here are the moves that will win you the game immediately.

Against the Half Accepted, Nxe4 and develop normally but with an open file.
Against the Half Accepted with 4... e5, Nc3 is better, and from there it gets complicated. This line is one of Black's best tries.
Against the Declined, Nbd2 is essentially always the best move. Play for e5 and a kingside attack.
Against the Declined with 3... e6, try 4. Be3 to play a sort of backwards Stonewall setup.