Opening Repertoire Suggestions

Hi everyone, I'm trying to improve my game. Typically, I've just followed principles to capture the center and I haven't followed an opening repertoire. 

I started playing the Vienna after watching a YouTube video and have been having some success with it, so I figured it's time to have a couple of rudimentary openings that can be played in multiple situations. I would like some assistance and opinions on this please! 

As white, I currently play the Vienna in all circumstances unless black opens with Sicilian, in which I'll play the delayed alapin. I love trappy openings that are solid, have an objective, and are also classically principalled (to my style!).

As black I have had more issues. I am wanting an opening I can always play. But I really dislike openings like KID that are modern and cramped. It's really not my style. I don't mind the Dutch openings so much but I would like less exposure to my king. The lines there are aggressive and I'd like to be more mild! I keep getting caught out trying to think about balancing an attack whilst having a somewhat fragile centre.

Currently, I play an off beaten Vienna game-if they play e4, I play e5, then knight to f6. but that requires their bishop and knight to come out! 

a) i have been looking for an opening I can transition to in case they don't bring out these two minor pieces (and I've already played e5)

and 

b) i am also after an opening to play in case they start with d4 or the Sicilian. I came up with the Dutch stonewall. 

Any help would be appreciated!

Any assistance would be really helpful!

I enjoy the Sicilian and play it exclusively against e4. It is not so bad when you recognise that most of the ideas in several variations can be used in each other as the transposition between lines exists due to the opening pawn structure and piece development. It is by far the richest opening for black for me. Against 1.d4 I play the Dutch and have less experience due to fewer 1.d4 games at my level. I would say that the Dutch is much harder than Sicilian due to the necessity to be precise and aggressive for black constantly. This is due to the weak f7 square from both diagonals running through it. White can go make a cup of tea, complete a crossword puzzle forgo castling to play king d1 and black will still not be better without white actually blundering pieces or pawns it is such a comfortable opening for them. That said I want to persist with that as I enjoy the asymetrical nature and space you get in the stonewall.

I think e5 is a good choice for you. You stated you like classical principled at least as white so maybe try it as black. Have you considered playing something solid like the Petrov defence?

I started with the Sicilian at 800, currently at 1400 and still going strong scoring 2/3 of my points. Most importantly is getting playable and enjoyable positions in the Sicilian game.

Moreover I took a pilot project with a couple playing partners starting at 800 level and they are now 1700+ with the Sicilian game.

The downside to the Sicilian I have learned is it takes patience and a quality over quantity character.

Some have unique cases I guess?

Curious, what does a 500 player effectively defend against e4 nowadays?

On 1 e4 play 1...e5. After 2 Nf3 Nc6 you play the Vienna 1 e4 e5 2 Nc3 Nf6 one tempo down, so you are familiar with the structure.
On 1 d4, 1 c4, 1 Nf3 you can play your Stonewall.
On 1 e4 c5 you can play your delayed Alapin and on 1 e4 e5 your Vienna.

Take a look at my blogs and you will find many suggestions..

Introduction To The Vienna Game & Gambit...

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/introduction-to-the-vienna-game-gambit

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell

Hi, 
As black I recommend playing the Caro-kann. It is a super easy opening to learn and I have beaten many strong players in my country with it. I also recommend you to have a secret weapon such as the Scandinavian, Portuguese Variation. Watch these two videos of Gothamchess aka Levy Rozman. I learned both of these openings from these videos
Caro-kann
Portuguese Variation
As white I like the Catalan System and the Reti opening, Larsen Variation. My secret weapons as white are Vienna and the Norfolk Gambit. If you want to practice these gambits, be sure to join my club where you can practice your gambits in tournaments with gambit positions. I am going to start tournaments when we reach 30 members. Click here to join

Wow! A lot of responses. I wasn't expecting any answers! Thank you everyone, so much. I've just finished a long shift and will be sleeping. I'll be back within the next 24 hours. Thank you again! 

I really love the Queen's Gambit which I can give you the study to learn it if you want.

For Black, against e4, I like the French as it is easy to learn although you may not like the campness of it, but I find it opens up if you play your pawn breaks correctly. The French also allows me to transpose into the Sicilian which is a very dynamic opening. Don't worry about 'theory' because your opponent most likely will know just as much as you and the games usually aren't won in the opening.

Against d4, I like the Semi-Slav which you can decide whether or not to play the messy, complex lines or the calmer, 'easier' variations like Cambridge Springs (not covered in study) or you can try to learn the Grunfeld which is open and aims to counterattack White's center. Good thing about it is that people rarely face it up to my level of 1600 so you will have a slight advantage over them

Yeah, I'm not too big into the many lines! I don't think any of my lines are sicilian

If you want to improve your attacking skills in the Vienna, I recommend looking at some King's Gambit games. They both have very similar motifs, with pieces on the same squares, etc. 

Against the Sicilian, I reckon you'd find success with the Grand Prix Attack, which is also very similar to the Vienna. 

As black, it's harder to find openings that are principled, sharp, and don't leave you with a space disadvantage, simply due to the fact that black moves after white does. Against 1. d4, playing a Cambridge Springs style system, looking to overload the knight on c3, would probably work for you. Black has slightly less space but still has some control over the center, the overload of the c3 knight is very simple to implement, and black usually always has good prospects with the usual pawn breaks. 

Against e4, just playing e4-e5 seems to fit best with your checklist. 

In which case you obviously don't know what the Vienna is.

Yeah, you really don't seem to know what the Vienna is, lol.

Stonewall dutch is highly reccomended. I picked it up at about your rating and it served me well. I would suggest following NervesOfButter's advice - study the stonewall dutch (or whichever opening you end up choosing) by trying to understand which squares each peice belongs on and why, as well as the typical plans for both sides, rather than memorizing moves.

oh I can't STAND the stonewall! I quit playing a decade ago because no one would make a book editor (tree  based) and trainer l begged for as tempo has now because of the stonewall and 1.e4 d5 2.e5 advanced scandinavian straightjackets.

if you hate being cramped, why stonewall? it's VERY HARD finding tactics in that squeezing through on the flanks, BUT, it is an easy "same moves more often than not" system that you can play on BOTH sides of the board and that's always dependable against most weird openings that don't involve the grob or e4/e5 attacks.

you aren't going to capture the center in the stonewall. you attack on the flanks in closed positions and in the center in open games.

if you don't mind draws, the 2200 that taught me the stonewall kept trying to talk me into easy "just copy white until it's time not to" petroff because it's easy to skim ratings points off higher rated due to the drawish nature. 

while the theory is mind boggling, you could just adopt the indian formation and play it against EVERYTHING.

along similar lines, the ...Nc6 "dark knight system" is allegedly easy to learn and useful against "everything". as i'm seeing that early Nc3 & Nc6es have better results in a lot of lines eg. the quade gambit vs the fisher defense in the king's gambit has better stats than 3.Nf3. it might make for an aggressive system. i'm trying to unlearn Nf3/Bc5, but i just so love hitting f7 and wrecking castles or worse.

if you were a counter attacker, you could always play a knight, retreat it, and play it again. i got really annoyed by that against a 2400 once. in another game, he pushed all his pawns forwards 1 waiting for me to blunder, but i would have rather faced a book line.

hope that helps

the stonewall, as mentioned, is almost automatic. 

close off the queenside if your opponent 0-0s

pawnstorm it IMMEDIATELY if he 0-0-0s

NEVER let your opponent trade his queen's bishop for your king's bishop as that's the one that can squeeze through your pawns

play Nf3/Nf6 as soon as possible to prevent queen checks from h, especially when a knight's on e4/e5

play your f knight to e4/e5 as an outpost and follow it with your queen's knight from d2/d7 and take your opponent's queen bishop with 1 if you can

beware of attacks on your backwards e pawn... either get the d knight out of the way if it's blocking your queen's bishop, defend it with your queen or make a BIGGER threat like a check if you can 

try to do a rook lift on f to follow it with your other (i've NEVER been able to pull that off, but DID beat a 1700 last week sliding my rook in front of my castle with my queen and a knight owning the kingside and my opponent's pieces all tied up on his queenside because he could only squeeze 1 knight through my queenside, and that knight was useless against my queen's bishop until i pushed my e pawn and brought THAT into the carnage.

um... when an opponent pushes his c pawn to attack your d pawn, develop your king's bishop BEFORE he pushes the pawn. i like doing it because most opponents chase the bishop back which helps close the queenside and maybe lock bishops out

beware of pawn forks when you have your knight on f and KB on d. try and MAKE pawn forks against your opponent who might be stonewalling too.

queenside fianchettos are brutal if your opponent rips the center open. try to keep it closed. i hated it because it keeps me locked IN, but it keeps opponents locked out.

the NICE thing about the stonewall is, unless you're facing something like the staunton gambit's e4 before you can complete your wall and 0-0, you're not going to lose a game quickly. in fact, they last too long for my tastes. once you learn the formation, it's usually easy to see threats coming

the other side of that coin is that some aggressive players will play to attack you before you're castled and score a quick win, or scatter your pieces. someone had me tripping all over myself last week like that.

the stonewall is a very dependable partner. my ratings would be lower without it,  but i can't wait to learn the albin and other tactical lines and play my way.

hope that helps

that's pretty much all you need to know to play it, but it will 

I currently have my favourite repertoire ever, and don't see any reason to change it.

As White: Vienna Gambit, Closed Sicilian, 3.Bd3 against the French, 2 Knights Caro-Kann

As Black: Caro-Kann, Stonewall Dutch.

Still winging it against Pirc, Modern and Alekhine. With Black, most flank openings can be met by a Dutch formation.