c6 works against everything
1.c3 is the same as 1...c6 except it's one tempi ahead!
True lol but I would still consider us equal then.
After e4, c4,d4, and Nf3 Black is not fully equal yet. Black is totally fine in all lines but you still ha e to play accurately and equalize eventually just because White has the first move advantage
The problem with playing 1.c6 against everything is you lose certain chances to gain a better setup. If someone is going for a london system I'd much rather play c5.
The problem with playing 1.c6 against everything is you lose certain chances to gain a better setup. If someone is going for a london system I'd much rather play c5.
True, but do you think the advantage of being out of their theory might be enough compensation? Because, if people only played the best moves, then every game would go e4 e5 Nf3 and so on.
Aren't you a little too high rated to be trying the old "but my bad move isn't theory" line?
Nf6, d5, or e6 can be played against most white moves. 1... c6 is good against 1e4, but against other main first moves d5 or Nf6 are more moves you often want to play and playing c6 without seeing what white does may not be so good.
You can also play 1... c5 against almost anything, and that is usually a better move than c6.
The problem with playing 1.c6 against everything is you lose certain chances to gain a better setup. If someone is going for a london system I'd much rather play c5.
True, but do you think the advantage of being out of their theory might be enough compensation? Because, if people only played the best moves, then every game would go e4 e5 Nf3 and so on.
Definitely not... You are simply playing a sub-optimal move. You can't say they are out of their theory on move 2 lol 
. it will simply transpose into a slav type position or a less good london system.
You can defintiely get away with playing 2.c6 and I've done it for awhile myself... but then I realised that there's lots of openings where I would rather play c5 and only in the Caro-Kann can you justify spending 2 tempi on that.
It IS nice though when you play 2.c6 against d4 or something and it transposes into a Caro-Kann when they go e4.
1. ... c6 vs everything is my current approach. It's completely fine and it offers many transpositions to solid structures you are familiar with. You need to know how to play the Caro and Slav, but at least if you see the English, g3, b3 you can still roll with 1. ... c6, develop your LSB and have c6/d5/e6 pawn triangle.
Maybe it can be said to be unambitious and non-critical vs offbeat/hypermodern openings, but it's a perfectly fine response to e4, d4, c4 which you'll see 99% of the time.
