Opening repertoire for black

Almost all of my opening repertoire includes openings and attacks for white, but I have nothing prepared for when I have to play Black. What do you recommend me?

I'm better at tactical games than at positional ones, and my opening repertoire as white is basically made of 1.e4 openings:

• King's Gambit against e5 (1.e4 e5 2.f4).
• Blackmar-Diemer Gambit against the Scandinavian(1.e4 d5 2.d4).
• Monte Carlo variation against the French (1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 exd5 4.c4)
• Panov Attack against the Caro-Kann (1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.c4).
• Against the Sicilian, I normally follow the Main line (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3) and wait to see what my opponent does.
• And I improvise against the other defenses.

Oh, and don't be afraid to say "dubious" lines, I've already tried the Latvian Gambit, the Halibut Gambit, the Fried Fox and some others.

Thanks in advance!

If you like tactical games, the Sicilian offers lots of sharp lines against 1.e4. You could also play the French Defense, Winawer variation if you don't mind possibly losing a kingside pawn or two to get an attack.

1.d4 tends to be more positional, but if you want an imbalanced game you can play the somewhat eccentric Dutch Defense with 1. ...f5 and then choose from several variations. The most common are the Stonewall, which is somewhat more positional but can easily become tactical, and the Leningrad, which is a throw-caution-to-the-wind line and tends to be very sharp unless both players are overcautious.

1.c4 and 1.Nf3 are also common enough to worry about, but generally you can use a Dutch- or Sicilian-like system without too much trouble, or just follow a classical development plan by using 1. ...d5/e5 and moving pieces out normally.

I use the Pirc exclusively.  It's nice because of its flexibility...if you end up putting a pawn on c5, it can turn into a Sicilian.  If you put a pawn on e5 instead, it turns into the King's Indian Defense.  Or play c6 and let white come to you...

The move order is generally d6, Nf6, g6, Bg7, O-O.  From there, you have to decide how to meet white.  Sometimes you need to play Nd7 before O-O to keep white from pushing e5 and kicking your knight off the Nf6 square.  Without Nd7, I used to retreat the knight to e8 (after O-O) and play with a tight, cramped defense; this is fine if your opponent doesn't get carried away with a kingside pawn storm.  I don't play Ne8 anymore.  Now I bring the queen's knight to Nd7 early, which keeps white from invading, and I generally stick my own pawn on e5 which leads to the KID.  But it's sometimes handy to keep the e pawn in reserve, since white's dark squared bishop likes to pin your Nf6 knight to the queen, which doesn't work so well with a pawn there.  ;-)

If you want to explore the Pirc, I heartily recommend Pirc Alert! by Lev Alburt and Alex Chernin.

Hey pauix,

Some people fall in love with the openings they use as white, but dislike playing anything as black. I've even met players who would literally play for a draw as black in every game and only play for a win as white!

My thought is, why let white have all the fun?

When you're picking defenses for black, try to pick defenses that not only offer good winning chances, but also lead into positions that you will have fun playing. Of course, some peoples' idea of fun is very different than others. For instance, I have a ton of fun playing the rock solid but slightly passive Caro-Kann, but if you're a tactical player, this would probably not be your cup of tea.

Focus most on your defense against 1. e4. This is the position that you're going to be playing most often, and it is arguably going to be the most important part of your whole opening repertoire.

I would  recommend simply playing the classical response 1...e5. This an extremely popular, solid, and respectable response at all skill levels which usually leads to reasonably lively and tactical games. Sure, white does have a decent number of responses to it, but it is not hard to get a reasonable position against any of these. The Ruy Lopez (1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5) and the Italian (same as the Ruy except with 3. Bc4) are going to be what you see most often, the Ruy being the more significant of the two (I find getting a good position against the Ruy to be rather harder than against the Italian). And yet, sensible and classical development will probably take you far with 1...e5, and you should have no trouble getting a fine game and unleashing your tactical skill. With a little research, you should have no trouble finding advice on how to play against all white responses to 1...e5.

Next, we have to find a response to 1. d4, though this isn't nearly as important to focus on as your defense against 1. e4. Don't spend too much time on it, because you aren't going to use it all that often. 

I'm going to go out on a limb here and recommend something that not many people play, namely the Tarrasch defense. It is considered fully respectable, and requires less theoretical knowledge than other tactical defenses to d4 like the Dutch, Benoni, Gruenfeld, or KID. Main features of this defense include plenty of open lines for your pieces, many chances for tactics and attacking play, and the potential for an Isolated Queen Pawn (The IQP occurs when the c and e pawns are exchanged and black's d pawn is left with no fellow pawns on either side of it.) Because you play the Panov attack against the Caro, you will likely have some experience playing with an IQP, which white will often get if black takes early on c4.

The Tarrasch defense is initiated by the moves 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 c5. As you can see, black has the potential for an IQP if white exchanges on d5 and later takes the c pawn. The IQP can be weak, but it can also be a superb attacking asset. In any event, learning how to play with an IQP is both interesting and highly instructive. Finding info on the Tarrasch will be a bit more difficult, but it can be found. Also, a good book on the Tarrasch (Complete Defense to Queen Pawn Openings by Mr. Eric Schiller) can be found for a fairly cheap price.

Against 1. c4, the English, black doesn't usually have a very tough game (at least in the opening stages). Don't get me wrong: I'm not saying the English is a bad opening (I play it myself), but it isn't (generally speaking) the sort of opening where black is going to be blown out of the water if he doesn't know exactly what he's doing. Simply replying with 1...e5 and developing sensibly should give you a fine game.

One has to be a bit more careful against 1. Nf3, because white has a lot of options at this point. If you play the Tarrasch defense, you can safely reply with 1...d5 and not worry if your opponent plays 2. d4, because you will still be well within your repertoire. If your opponent plays 2. g3, then simply a classical developing scheme should guarantee you a good game.

As for the bottom dwellers, such as 1. f4, 1. g3, 1. b3, and so on, you should have no real trouble. Simply play 1...e5 (or 1...d5 if 1...e5 is not practical, such as against 1. f4) and develop sensibly. Most rare openings are rare for a very good reason. 

Hope you find this helpful. You will likely get many conflicting opinions on this thread. Don't be afraid to pick and choose from the varying advice people will give you. The bottom line is, everyone has a completely unique playing style, and no one can really choose your opening repertoire for you. The advice of others is only a guideline, and you are the one who must have the final say.

You want some aggressive lines eh?

If you want to study a lot I would suggest a sicilian of some sort and perhaps the kings indian or benoni.

If you don't want to study a lot I would suggest the portuguese variation of the 2...Nf6 Scandinavian coupled with a dutch defence of some sort (classical or leningrad)

Sicilian Najdorf against 1.e4, queenside counter attack.

KID against 1.d4, kingside counter attack.

Train these two hard enough and you can use them from 1000 rating to 2500+ rating.

The alekhine and english 4 knights and of course the ruy Lopez

I admit that they are hard openings but instead of training easier openings (which are not that easier) training solid openings that are used regularly by pro players makes more sense. 

Also, studying these openings are easier since there are lots of games played with these openings in game database.

the old benoni is always fun against d4, i also find the budapest gambit to be very solid

I reccomend that for your playing style, experiment with the Dutch and see if it's to your taste. The Dutch is offbeat and offers active piece play and attacking chances in the center and on the flank with the f-pawn.

White 1 g3

black 1 g6

job done

Chess Mentor has a great course for KID.

Please look up my chess.com games esp for caro kann panov attack. If what you said is true we have similar opening repertoire. As far as a defence for black is concerned, I strongly recommend grundfeld! Good luck

From your repertoire i can see that you like to play with an isolated queen pawn. This is why i think that the tarrasch QGD(1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 c5) is definitely your recommended 1.d4 defense.  it will lead to the sort of structures and piece play you like, and as an added bonus the same setup can be played against 1.c4 and 1.Nf3 (an old joke is that 1.e4 is the only move which prevents a tarrasch setup).

Against 1.e4 in my view 1...e5 is the most fighting move for an amateur(the sicilian can be quite slow if W avoids the main lines), an aggressive player like you should just love playing the 2 knights defence against the italian game, the open variation against the ruy (or the neo-arckhangel(not sure about the spelling), or the schielmann, and maybe the classical...there is no shortage of ambitious and sound stuff against the ruy), the faulkbeer countergambit against the KG...just to mention some possibilityes.

Foundamentally i agree with hankm post above.

I already play the 2 Knights, the Falkbeer and the Arckhanglesk, and I feel comfortable with the resulting middlegame options. Thanks for the advice on playing the Tarrasch, I'll give it a try.

I've played the Grundfeld from time to time, and I even went into a Grundfeld Thematic tournament. I felt more comfortable with the white pieces rather than the black ones, but I liked some of the themes I saw and I still play it when I want to deviate from my most used openings (Benoni/Dutch).

Thanks to you for the correction 

I'm quite sure you are going to enjoy the tarrasch if you like your current W repertoire, good choice 

I like the slav /semi slav or even qbd orthodox against d4 - nice solid defences.another possiblity is the kings indian defence to d4.

against e4  i like the french or caro-khan but these defences can be very boring if the white side goes for the exchange variation as this makes the positions very symetrical.these opening tend to be not as sharp as th e scilian. Some people just seem to hate the french defence as white.