Openings & Defences for Juniors

Thanks Daniel.  I will try and get him to send you a challenge. His about the same rating as you. 

There is some wisdom here.  I love that you recognize that his current competition isnt very good, and that you know you need to get him somewhere he can be beat to improve, but you want to get him to where he can win a game or two so he doesnt get discouraged.  A couple of points though:

(1) he is most likely not good enough that openings matter much yet.  The best way to improve at his likely level is improving his tactics.  Check out chesstempo.com which is like the tactics trainer here except free (and some would say better, even if you pay here).  With good tactics and basic opening principles (i.e. develop your pieces, control the center, etc) but no memorized opening theory, guarantee he will get some wins if in a proper rating band.  You may be surprised at how many tactical ideas he (and you) are not yet able to see in a position, but can readily learn with modest practice.  Its a lot more bang for the time spent then studying openings for beginners (and more fun too);

(2) most scholastic tournaments are stratified by rating categories, so you can have him play in a low rating band to try and insure he gets at least a win or two and doesnt get discouraged;

(3) he could certainly play some games on here if he is interested

Thanks Adam and Art.  He is going to his first tourney this Sat.  He will be in the under 900 band k-8 grade.  I think he will do very well in this band but will meet competition that will beat him.

I will check out chesstempo.com.  He loves tactics.  He read the book (the only one he has read) 303 Tricky Checkmates.  He loved it and found most of the mates.

I will check out he Lolli.  He is sold on the Fried Liver for he upcoming Tourney if he gets 2 knights in the Italian. 

Thanks so much.

the most straightforward response to 1.d4 is 1...d5 its the Closed Game or Double Queens pawn. Most of the time, this continues to the Queens Gambit via 2. c4 and the typical response by black if the Queen's gambit Declined which follows either 2...c6 (Slav Defense) or 2...e6, both are very popular among GMs. Your son might not be all that used to Closed games, but it will be a great experience for him.

If you're looking into playing d4 as white, a great opening system for your son to play is the stonewall attack, which roughly goes 1. d4 2. e3 3. c3 4. f4 5. Bd3 (usually) and I often play 6. Nf3 if I can as well. The best part about this is that it doesn't matter what moves black plays (as you cansee from my notation). I wouldn't ever suggest playing this against a chess master, but in the beginner to intermediate level, its a tough shell to crack.

Plus if he's in a <900 tourney, he probably wont have to worry about memorizing opening lines too much

Well, he finished his first tournament with 2 wins (first two games) and 3 loses.  He was not happy with losing! LOL  He also learned to pace himself.  He played non-stop in the skittles room.  By the third rated game he had a headache.  He did have a good time and wants to play again.  He told me, "dad, I played aimlessly on that lose".  He was upset at himself for losing concentration....pace yourself...it was a good leason. 

My sister is an attacking player also. I learned the game at five, and was concidered a prodigy (My rating in kidnergarten was 916) and I am coaching a youngster. She is playing the Scotch Gambit as white. I would recommend the Gruenfeld Defense as black (The Kings Indian gives away too much space) however, seeing as it is the most complicated defensive lines there is against 1. d4, I wouldnt recommend it. The onl Opening I would recommend to a attacking youngster against 1. d4 is the Blumefeld Gambit. It is super aggresive opening sacrificing a pawn for space. The Panov-Botvinnik attack against the Caro-kann is a good choice.

the fried liver attack is good. the reason gms dont play the fried liver attack is because they dont get the oppourtunity. instead they face this

The Lolli is definitely stronger than the Fried Liver. The Fried Liver doesn't objectively give the White more than about equal chances with correct play, the Lolli is almost winning.

 Awesome, glad he had fun.  2 out of 5 is a great result for a first tourney.  He'll get a kick of seeing a provisional rating on his first (or maybe second) chess life magazine and it will be motivational to get it higher.  Skittles is pretty useless, but fun (have you guys been introduced to the chess variant bughouse yet?) 

You guys try chesstempo.com yet?  At a guess he'll love it.   

chesstempo is great.  He likes it.  He was first chair at his county middle school tourny.  He beat three other school's first chair players but lost to an 8th grader (he is a 6th grader) first chair of the last school.