Does anybody know a solid opening for white

Why your openings fail.

Before you blame your losses on your choice of opening, you should first understand 2 of the main reasons why your opening could fail:

1. You expect too much from your opening
2. You don’t understand the opening well enough

Here’s the important details:

1. You expect too much from your opening

The opening is just the start of the game. The purpose is to develop your pieces and achieve a decent middle-game position. Accept that you cannot always get an advantage from the opening – and if you do – that’s a bonus.

A typical example to further illustrate the point

Picture this. A chess player achieves a good middle-game position against a stronger player. However, since his opponent is a stronger player, over the course of the game his position gets worse. He eventually loses and isn’t even sure why he lost. Should he blame the opening for his loss? Of course not.

You cannot expect your choice of opening to compensate for a lack in other important middle- or endgame skills

More often than not, in games below master level, it’s not your choice of opening that fails you. Rather, it’s your (lack of) knowledge and understanding of how that opening should be played that fails you.

Which brings us to the 2nd reason why your opening may fail you:

1. You don’t understand the opening well enough

Memorizing the main variations of the opening you play can be useful – as long as your opponent plays the moves you know or expect. But what happens when they deviate from the moves you memorized?

The moment an opening deviate from the main lines, your true understanding of the opening will be tested.

Magnus Carlsen often makes effective use of such opening deviations. He avoids his opponent’s opening preparation by occasionally choosing a move that – even if it may theoretically be an inferior move – neutralizes his opponent’s opening preparation. He does this because he believes his strength lies in his understanding of the game. Naturally he wants to play to his strengths, so he is willing to make a small compromise if that will steer the game into a direction where his strengths come into play.

How well do you understand your opening?

You can test your understanding of your opening by checking how well you can answer the questions below:

1. Where do each of the individual pieces go in my opening and why are those the best squares for them?
2. Which side will my king castle and is this always the case? When do exceptions come into play?
3. Which are the typical traps and tactics that occur in my opening?
4. What typically happens to the pawn-structure in the center and what are the middle-game ideas that flow from it? (Because middle-game plans depend mostly on the situation in the center.)
5. Which piece-exchanges are usually to my advantage in this opening? Which exchanges should I avoid, and why?
6. Which are the key positions that I need to know if I play this opening?

That said, what can you do to improve your understanding the opening you choose to play?

If you couldn’t answer the above questions as well as you would like to, I recommend you check out a openings database and select a number of games (say 20-50 games), where your choice of opening was played by masters. Go through these games and keep the above questions in mind. You will soon start to notice the typical patterns in that opening. By studying a whole number of games in this way (and whilst referring to the list of questions above) you will get a much better understanding of the opening.

Tip: When you’re looking for an opening to learn – go for main-line openings. There is a good reason why they are called “main-line”. They are time-tested and over the course of your chess development, you will be glad you studied them. “Sideline-openings” have their place and require much less study but if you are serious about improving your chess–sideline openings will not give you a solid enough foundation.

If you want a solid position, give a try to 1.d4, the English (1.c4) or the Reti (1.Nf3). You will often castle early, usually with a LSB on g2 (not always in 1.d4 openings), and the game will be likely to be closed (compare 1.Nf3 d5 2.c4 c6 3.b3 to 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4).

I only post it because of the many posts here by 900 players that think openings decide their games.

I suggest the Italian, it is easy to use and to learn. Here I leave you a post with the theory and the three main variations. https://www.chess.com/blog/JineteEragon/italian-opening-variations

I clearly think its the London system and the pirc defence

King's Indian Attack (Barcza System)

Botvinnik System (of the English Opening)

Queen's Gambit

Colle

Catalan

Reti (King's Indian Defense setup, with White)

Stonewall

If your Chess Rank is 900 or Below, You have remarkable options available to you.

The Scholars Opening (which includes Scholar Mate) is a solid viable line for you.

From what I have learned, you should practice multiple openings. I do this because I don't know what the other player will do, and me being 700 and being really good at openings is decent (I need to think more, if I actually took the time to think I would be like 1000+)
For me I have studied the most important lines in the Sicilian defense, Dutch defense, English, Kings pawn, and Queens pawn. As those openings are most common on my side.

Oh btw, the scholars opening is easily punishable, especially if you play it against the Dutch or Sicilian.

As White? Unfortunately the best way to play as White is not to have one opening but to have solid lines against each and every of Black's tries.

The most classical approach (and in my opinion, the best) is to play for the center. This would be either 1. e4 (where you'll play 2. d4 unless Black attacks the e-pawn or defends the d4 square with a pawn) or 1. d4 (where you'll play 2. e4 unless Black attacks the d-pawn with a pawn or defends the e4 square).

After this, you develop your knights, then find the best place to put your bishops, then castle, and you should have at least a good middlegame, if not better.

1.a3 trust

Nah h1 better

Lol

I've played all of these in serious games.

The Scholars Mate Opening has a Shelf Life.

You really should play it while you can.

When you reach rank 1,000, The Scholars Opening will begin to fade away. Eventually, your ranking can get so high you never see it again.

That's like saying crashing a car into a wall has a shelf life, so you should do it while you still have working legs to use the gas pedal. Just because you CAN does NOT mean you should.
The Scholar's Opening is trash.

The metaphor you gave is incorrect.

A better metaphor will be a Gallon of Milk.

A Gallon of Milk has a Shelf life.

After time has past, The Gallon of Milk will sour.

Drinking the Milk before it has chance to sour is a valid option.

The Scholar Opening is only trash “IF” your opponent knows how to deal with it. The player is playing against opponents 900 or lower. Those players have high likelihood of not knowing how to respond to such a crude simplistic caveman attack. The beginner shouldn’t waste this opportunity to be Scholarly. He may never have a chance to play this opening later when his ranking improves.

@20

"The Scholar Opening is only trash “IF” your opponent knows how to deal with it."
++ It is trash if your opponent does not know or find out how to deal with it too: you get a free win, from which you learn nothing at all.