I have always believed the adage that for players below 2000 the soundness of the opening is not as important as just knowing how to avoid trouble in the openings that you like to play.
I know that all the GMs like the QG and the sicilian, but I hate playing them and I don't play GMs so I would rather spend the time learning my own pet openings well enough to not lose from them.
And there lies what I think is part of my quandry. As much as I like these openings for white, I hate them for black because they leave me vulnerable and underconfident in my black play. What are some favorites of sub 2000 players?
lev alburt suggest the center counter for white, though I don't play it I can certainly see the appeal
The Caro-Kann is pretty easy to learn and rarely gets you into deep trouble, the French is another solid opening for black that is fairly easy to learn (not master) and stay out of trouble
I tend to play aggressivly with white (Vienna, Bishops, Grand Prix Attack, Kings Gambit) and conservatively with black (CK, KID). I just want to learn these openings well enough to get safely into a middle game.
I’ve been playing for 23 years, and openings are still my roughest part. In an effort to improve that part of my game, I’ve taken to the Game Explorer feature with it’s statistical analysis of winning % based on the first couple moves. My research tends to hypothesize that there are a select few openings/defenses that are superior to all others. In particular, the Sicilian, Queen’s Pawn, Italian, and the Ruy Lopez. The statistics could be corrupt because of popularity issues, which begs the question: Are these four popular because they are the best, or because of some other mundane X factor?