Simple & Classic openings for a rookie to learn?

What three openings would you recommend for a rookie? Am looking for simple and classic...a foundation to build upon.

Thanks!

A Ruy Lopez or Giuco Piano, a Queen's Gambit declined (for when you're playing 1.d4 as black) and if you want, a french or a caro-kann.

If we first admit that there are no simple openings, let's see what I'd recommend:

With the White pieces:

Bishop's Opening (1.e4 e5 2.Bc4)

With the Black pieces versus 1.e4:

Russian (Petroff) Defense (1. ... e5 2.Nf3 Nf6)

With the Black pieces versus 1.d4:

Lasker's Defense to the Queen's Gambit

There really isn't an answer to your question, but I thought I'd offer an opinion - even if a flaky one.

as white Giuco Piano

1e4 e5 2nf3 nc6 3Bc4 Bc5

as black french defense vs e4

1e4 e6 2d4 d5

as black queens gambit declined vs d4

1d4 d5 2c4 e6 

very simple and classical openings to learn imo

The Giuoco Piano as white

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5

Also be ready to face 3...Nf6, the super-sharp Two Knights Defense.

As black, I would choose a response to e4 openings and d4 for openings. Personally, I play:

I play the sicilian defense against e4, but there is a large amount of theory, so you may not want this. I think it is fun, though.

You could also face e4 with the french, the caro-kann, the center-counter, the pirc/modern, or even just e5.

Against d4, I play the King's Indian defense. It is a very fun fighting opening, and I haven't studied it's theory much, and I do fine. Other options include the Nimzo-Indian, Queen's Indian, Queen's Gambit Declined, and others.

A thousand thanks to everyone for their input. And to answer Drawmaster, I've quickly realized that nothing is simple (aside from the fun of chess) but would at least like to have the illusion that I'm starting off on the right footing. Again, thanks!

White: King's Gambit will be extremely rewarding in the long run. Ruy lopez also.

Black: Try King's Indian and Sicilian Dragon. Somewhat similar in the g7 bishop.

I totally agree with you. The Petroff Defence, for me, should be a beginner's defence because of its dynamism and positionally rich in tactics. Secondly, though there are many variations in the Petroff, once you've grasped its opening principles, you'll find its variation very easy to memorize.

As of the Bishop's Opening, I tend to steer the game into a Vienna like position, eventually arrive at a King's Gambit Declined Position, leading to a very early attack.

As of Queen's Pawn Opening, it depends on your taste.

Queen's Gambit Declined is an easy to play and a good solid defence against d4. But I prefer the Dutch Stonewall

Just wrote down every recommendation made above. Will eventually study them all, but it looks like these were the biggest on recommendation:

Ruy Lopez

Queen's Gambit Declined

French

Caro-kann

King's Indian

And one that particularly piqued my curiosity: The Russian (Petroff) Defense

Thanks for all the recommendations and input. Am playing for a true and sincere love and fascination with the game...but someday, maybe once, it'll be cool to actually win a game on chess.com. Maybe one of these openings will lead to that goal. And you know the biggest goal? I have a 3 1/2 year old son...by the time he's able to learn, I'd like to know what I'm doing!

I like your choices, especially the King's Indian, Karo-kann, and the Ruy Lopez. I'd toss in the English as well. It's not to hard to learn and is a nice change of pace. 

Another one to consider is the Colle System, which is easy to understand and learn, and you'd be able to arrange the basic setup in a large proportion of your games with White. It's also a very instructive opening for developing players. You can play over some of the games here if you're interested:

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chesscollection?cid=1001952

How about 0 openings?  Your rating is 1034.  Studying openings is not all that useful at this level.  Take the time and instead do tactics problems, here or at chesstempo.com.  Or play extra games, and analyze what you did wrong, with help from other players, or if need be, a computer program. 

The problem with studying openings is that your time gets sucked up memorizing a set of the first 10 moves.  Your equal rated opponent usually varies early, and your both on your own very very quickly.  Whatever advantage you got out of the opening, if any, doesnt end up mattering with maybe 4/5ths of the game left, and plenty of opportunity for tactics to decide the game, as almost always happens at that level. 

At some point, it gets harder to improve by spending the same amount of time on tactics and positional learning, and when that happens, thats the right time to learn openings.  I've heard at least one chess teacher say thats around 1800 -- I'd put it a little lower, at say 14-1600. 

Look at this way.  No matter how much time you spend on openings, there will still be people that can beat you with the Hippopotamus defense,  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippopotamus_Defence , because the stuff other then memorizing openings matters - a lot.  Its just a matter of what the best use of time at a particular level is. 

I think the easiest (?) 2 openings to learn in terms of simplicity:

As white, the Vienna game

As a Black defense against d4, the Budapest.

You can quickly become competent in both, but they are rich enough that you can still learn new stuff after many years.

And yeah, those are my favourite openings, and have been for ages : )

+1 Back when I used to go to a lot of tournaments, I met a lot of players, of varying strengths up to, in the rare case, expert rank, who played the Colle system pretty much regardless of what black does.  It seems a pretty decent way to avoid thinking about the first few moves.  As far as I saw, the Colle was the most popular choice for this purpose.  I used to use the Botvinik English for this same purpose, but it has more ways for black to avoid the system.   

Pick an opening for white, two for black and know only say the first 5 moves.

Most important is for you to understand the reasons for each and every move you make as this is more important in the early stages.

I used Purdy's "Guide to Good Chess" for guidelines as what to accomplish in the opening

Just wanted to send a thousand thanks to everyone who posted on this thread. Very valuable information. Will study basic openings, as I mentioned above, just to feel confident and familiar. But, to be honest, wasn't too crazy about memorizing! To use a music analogy, I'll "learn the scales," but want to be able to "jam," on the chess board. Very much like the general advice for beginners. Also, will follow a friends advice to study endgames, as well as using the tactics trainer. And most importantly, will keep training my mind in being able to see patterns. Have started a "chess journal" to write down/keep/study all this information being shared. Again, many many thanks. If I could buy you all lunch, I would. And if anyone wants to take the time to play a rookie with a low ranking, I offer an open invitation.