I HATE 1.d4

I HATE 1.d4

Nothing simple to play agianst it.  Nothing fun and tactical without knowing a ton of theory.  No risks to take!!!

Any opening suggestion against 1.d4 for a fun, exciting tactical game, without bookloads of theory to learn?

I love forums.

Southpawsam

Go Pens Go

And that means....

I felt the same about 1.d4 back when I was a pure 1.e4 player. I had trouble finding a good defense against 1.d4. I wanted tactics so I picked something aggressive like Dutch Leningrad. It turned out that it was way too hard to play. Huge risks with little gain. Then I tried lame fianchetto crap. Way too hard imo. One bad step and you get squeezed like crap by pawns.

Guess what I finally settled on? Slav-Defense. You might think it's closed and position but it's not. It is quite counter-attacking but at the same time rock solid. The theory is not that hard because many slav moves are very natural and intuative. You get all your pieces on active squares before the big battle begins. Try it, you might like it.

Sorry, 1. d4 tends to be a more positional opening.  1. e4 is more tactical, as I have noticed that in e4 games, you tend to play out lines, whereas in d4 games, each side adopts a structure, be it KIA, KID, reti, Nimzo-indian, etc.

Try the Budapest Gambit or the Dutch.  Both are += but playable and tricky.  See my Budapest match here.

The Grunfeld is pretty fun. Lots of active piece play. There is some theory to go with it, but hey, that's the way it is with most strong openings.

Thanks,

Yeah Leningrad is too complicated.  The Stonewall Dutch and Budapest Gambit were two options, but I will look into the Slav.  Which Slav lines do you play??

Thanks,

Southpawsam

I play all the lines in James Vigus book Play the Slav. You can check out the lines here in Silmans review of the book: http://www.jeremysilman.com/book_reviews_jd/Play_the_Slav.html

The lines are classical. None of that fianchetto slav (schlechter slav) crap or weirdo a6 stuff. Counterattacking but solid. I have bought many opening books and this is the only book where I am happy with EVERY single line that is presented in the book.

Thanks

Any more notes

P.S. Might have to buy the book now

Any more comments.

Semi-slav or slav. QGA can get pretty sharp too.

Benko's gambit if you get the chance (:

http://www.chess.com/article/view/a-rare-line-in-the-grunfeld

play the budapest! :D

QGD Lasker. This is the first opening system that made me enjoy playing black against 1.d4.   Solid, clear ideas and you're letting the better chess player win the game, not a over-prepared White.

Heck, I heard it recently worked for Anand. :)

here's a link to a thread i started which has some info you could use:

http://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/forcing-open-games-as-black

What about the Tarrasch Defence ?

ahem...i mentioned the benoni...