There's nothing that will work against everything but with Black you could study the Dutch Defense structure which can be played against 1. d4, 1. c4, 1. g3, and 1. Nf3.
Openings that work no matter what opponent plays
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Sep 9, 2021
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#3
There is no 1 size fits all. Not even for White!
Here are some that people have argued, but I will point out the failures:
1) Sokolsky's Opening - People think that it is a simple 1.b4 with pre-meditated moves of Bb2, e3, Nf3, b5, etc. Well, Against 1...e5 and 2...f6 or against 1...c6 and either 2...a5 or 2...Qb6, the play is VASTLY different. None of this refutes 1.b4, but White CANNOT play blindly with a pre-set of moves.
2) English Opening - I have seen people think they can close their eyes and play 1.c4, 2.g3, 3.Bg2, and 4.Nc3 and then open their eyes. Well, after 1.c4 e5 2.g3 Nc6 3.Bg2? (3.Nc3 is necessary, and now if 3...f5, then 4.Nf3! Nf6 5.d4! And if 5...e4, then 6.Nh4 (not possible with a Bishop on g2). White is slightly better. With the Bishop on g2, White cannot play d4 and Black is better.
3) London System - The London is no good against the Modern Defense - Even London guru Lakdawala says that himself. 1.d4 g6 2.Bf4?! Bg7 3.e3 d6 4.Nf3 Nc6 5.h3 e5! With at minimum equality after 6.Bg3, and after 6.dxe5? dxe5 7.Qxd8+ Kxd8 8.Bg5+? f6!, White is significantly worse!
So yes, there is no one size fits all.
So, I am working on getting my 1000 rating and need to learn some decent openings to get to the midgame without making any mistakes. However, I am a busy guy and would like to, at this point, only learn maybe 1-3 openings.
What do you suggest for an opening that you can play no matter what the opposite side plays for the first couple of moves or so... Even better, maybe an opening that you can use from as both white or black. Better still, something you can use up to 1500 or so...
Please excuse any thing I typed that is impossible silliness...I haven't been playing that long and know very little about formal chess.
Sam