In Dangerous Weapons 1. e4 e5 they recommend the Center Game. It looks playable & obscure & avoids the Petrov & long dragged out theoretical stuff.
1. e4 e5 2. d4 exd4 3. Qxd4
Center Game over the King's Gambit, Vienna, Four Knights, etc.?! 
Yeah, it is "dangerous weapons" all right, but white is in danger!
The Center Game is a really excellent practical choice for somebody who wants to play "real" openings, but doesn't have a lifetime to study...or just wants to work in super-theoretical stuff one opening at a time.
It's theory-lite, strategically simple, and when black goes very far astray early on, it's usually easy to see your way through the woods. If you have an e4 repertoire where a lot of your choices are aggressive kingside attacking openings (Open Sicilians with either Be2/f4 stuff or Yugoslav/English Attack stuff...150 Attack against Pirc/Modern...etc.), the Center Game fits fits in nicely. You'll almost always be playing to castle long and build up a kingside pawn rush.
Yes, black can equalize easily if he knows what he's doing, but he'll still be defending. And it's not like you're copping out on your repertoire with a London-Against-Everything approach...you're just working out the kinks in your non e4e5 choices first. Because the open games are a whole 'nother beast.
@Estragon: That's what I've always done in my spare time, using the opening explorer on chessgames.com. I've never paid attention to the losing ideas for "my" side, so that's probably something I should start doing.
@crazy1234: the puzzle has nothing to do with the thread, and any beginner should know (or quickly learn!) at least one of the four solutions.
@DrSpudnik: I guess the center game deserves at least a look-through, although I was always given the impression that it was a poor opening choice in general, with bringing out the queen early on and all. Is there some other reason that it's not seen that often, or am I simply being oblivious to all of the center games being played out there?
@EbenezerDrood: Indeed, I am trying to "work in super-theoretical stuff one opening at a time." Previously, I was working on my Moscow/Rossolimo Sicilian, but I'll probably stop for now, since I'm confident that I can get a comfortable position out of the opening stage in pretty much all of the lines, either by transposing into playable sidelines with little theory, setting a Maroczy Bind, which I find logical to play, for the most part, or playing the occasional mainline that I've studied. I've worked with enough French to come to a stopping point soon as well, even though I know considerably less French theory than Sicilian theory. The problem lies in my response to 1. d4; I play the KID (or try to), yet my theoretical knowledge of it is greatly lacking. I've played through at least a hundred KID games by GM's and feel comfortable with the strategies and ideas as black, but get confused by the masses of anti-KID lines out there, on which I should work in the near future... which means I won't have time to prepare a highly theoretical 1. e4 e5 opening as white at the same time, much less study middlegame books as I originally planned. Perhaps I'm working on my chess in the wrong order, but I plan on going from opening to middlegame to endgame, then back to openings again...
cant go wrong with the Ruy Lopez
Actually, I believe there are dozens of opening traps in the Spanish Opening, and several possible highly-theoretical responses by black for which I'd have to prepare thereafter!
It is undoubtedly a good and respectable opening choice. I'm simply afraid of the preparation I'd have to put into it to play it well and avoid opening surprises (or worse, facing someone who has prepared loads of Spanish theory) should I rely on it OTB.
5.d3 or (slightly more trickily) 5.0-0 Be7 6.d3 are very interesting Ruy Lopez sidelines- certainly more punchy than the Worrall.
5.d3 allows Black developing his bishop on c5, while 5.0-0 Be7 6.d3 avoids this at the cost of allowing the open variation and the Tkachiev/ Arkhangelsk variations.
Any thoughts on the current standing of the Center Attack lines, like good old uncle Tal used to play?
Any thoughts on the current standing of the Center Attack lines, like good old uncle Tal used to play?
You mean 5.d4 or 5.0-0 Be7 6.d4 in the Ruy?
AFAIK Tal has played this only a couple of times.
Myself has played this as white many times with great results, but the truth is that if Black is booked up, he has zero problems (factly, it is white the one that has to be careful).
Yeah, those. I don't have Tal's whole praxis in front of me. I just remember fondly being turned onto those lines after reading a bit of Life and Games. As I recall, they featured fairly heavily.
"Puzzle" fail! It said Qg8 was wrong.