Solid black openings for a beginner ?

I am seeking solid black openings against e4 and d4 which are easy to learn. Lately I`ve tried the French and the Tartakower - but without fun and success. At the French I got crushed badly from the flanks whereas the Tartakower seemed way to passive for me - too much room for white in the middle squares, especially for hyper-aggressive players at my level.

Would be the Caro-Kann and the Slav a way to go ? I want to concentrate more on tactics and endgames than learning phonebooks of main lines.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Caro-Kann is very similar to the french.

Perhaps semi-slav is more interesting than the slav, but you also have to learn some very sharp lines (botvinnik, anti-moscow, etc.)

1. e4

Alekhine: I, personally, like the Alekhine (1...Nf6). I don't know, this may be too advanced, as it gives up the center in an attempt to overextend white's pawns and give black a very aggresive game. However, one slip from black and the game is gone. This provides exciting, unbalanced middlegames for black, and hardly ever leads to draws. It is a win/lose opening.

Book Recommendation: Alekhine Alert by Timothy Taylor

Scandinavian: This opening starts out with 1...d5. It is simple to learn, and gives you fun aggresive games. Black will pawnstorm white's kingside and white will pawnstorm black's queenside. (Black usually castles 0-0-0 queenside and white castles 0-0 kingside.) This opening gives white very little options -- as a matter of fact, the only good reply he has is to take the pawn. I myself as white dread the Scandinavian (and this is partly the reason why I haven't been playing 1.e4 as often.)

Book Recommendation: The Modern Scandinavian by Wahls, Muller, Langrock

1...e5 If all else fails, you can resort to mirroring move. 

It occupies the center, and gives black much flexibility.

It also gives white flexibility however--- you have to learn a lot of theory for this one.

1.d4

Dutch Stonewall: This is a very fixed system. It involves the pawn setup f5-e6-d5-c6. Black's first four moves are 1...f5, 2...Nf6, 3..e6, 4...d5, 5...c6, and 6...Bd6. Of course, there are some exceptions.

This opening prevents a lot of White counterplay. Black can attack kingside very easily, and can actually pawn storm the kingside even though his king is castled there. This is because, underneath the "Stonewall", white cannot exploit Black's exposed king.

Book Recommendation: Dutch Stonewall by Jacob Aagard

I hope this helps. 

Any recommendation is bound to fail if you do not have access or do not utilize a good source of material(s) for that opening as Black.  If you get crushed as Black using French it could be your skill is too low or your knowledge of what to do in that defense is too low, or both.

Can you use Chess.com or any other source, wether books or internet, to learn the moves, ideas, and the variations?

I don't think you need 'suggestions'.  What you need, it seems, is knowledge of how to play any opening or defense you choose.

italian game for black and white, and then a queens gambit declined against d4 is what i recommend for beginners. just look over a few master games, to get a feel for what the themes and plans are.

French is probably your best option as it offers some super solid lines. The good thing about utilizing the French is when your strength increases you can start to gravitate towards the sharper, counterattacking lines. The French is an extremely flexible defense.

The Najdorf. Play the Najdorf and never look back. you'll win one game after another,crushing your opponents and leaving dazed and confused!  

#4 is close to what I would NOT recommand for a beginner. You want something simple.

1...e5 against 1.e4, 1...d5 against 1.d4, then develop your pieces as fast and as efficiently as you can.

I don't know how "beginnerish" you are though, this is based on your rating of 1250. (and should hold up to 1400 without much trouble)

1. d4 f5  runs into practical problems at the beginner level after either 

2.Bg5   or 

2.Nf3 then 3.Bg5

Or 2. Nc3. I win against almost every lower rated player in that line.

Conventional wisdom is to meet 1. e4 with e5 and 1. d4 with d5. Perhaps a Queen's Gambit Accept without trying to hold onto the pawn and the classical Ruy Lopez will suit your needs.

I would avoid the Alekhine; you might wind up cramped, which is your reason for not playing the French. I really doubt the Stonewall Dutch is a good idea, and I know the Najdorf is a really bad one as is the Semislav Botvinnik.

"hey u might think whats that creep 900 rated person doing here well to all of u haters when i play 2000 rated players i usually never lose" ----  NightFactory

Hmm.......

I wouldn't bother with a passive system like the one proposed in post #13. If you care long-term development as a chess player, a simple 1...e5 repertoire should serve you well. IM Sielecki (youtube handle Chessexplained) suggests one here http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEEA03DA1247EC963. 

Nimzo-Indian Defense (against 1.d4):

The Nimzo-Indian is a solid, respectable black defense against 1.d4 that is played at all levels. I am starting to play this myself and am liking it so far.

Video Recommendations: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htNc9zFPdQs

Book Recommendations:
The Nimzo-Indian: Move by Move by John Emms
Play the Nimzo-Indian by Edward Dearing
Starting Out: The Nimzo-Indian by Chris Ward

Sicilian Defense (against 1.e4)

The Sicilian Defense is a very popular and aggresive opening that is played at all levels. There are several variations to the Sicilian including Najdorf, Scheveningen, Dragon and Hyper-Accelerated Dragon (my favorite).

Video Recommendations: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esbm4nL5G-A; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfLYXrMoxT0

Other openings I would recommend are the Dutch Stonewall and Grunfeld.

I hope this helps! Good luck! : )

against e4 I think you can play Caro Kann. Maybe c5 is a little to aggressive in the fact it is gaining the center but also French will be good.

against d4 maybe Nimzo Indian? I'm not sure about that one. But If you also want to attack, Kings Indian will be good.

Playing 1...e5 requires a good deal of study and if you don't have a working knowledge of all the different systems you can easily be blown off the board.

Playing the opening by general principles will only get you so far.Some will say you shouldn't waste time on opening study and at one time that was very true. How is this so? Well years ago opening books were nothing but lines and lines of analysis suitable only for advanced players. Today, that is no longer the case as many opening books are very instructive and will serve the inspired intermediate player well. This is not to say you should study openings at the expense of other areas in chess. Tactical study is absolutely critical and you should spend a minimum of one hour a day on this aspect of chess.

I speak from personal experience as I play regularly in OTB tournaments. When I first started out I played the opening by general principles and while against very weak players this approach worked very well I found against the more savy tournament players I would constantly come out of the opening with a bad position. It wasn't until I got friendly with some very strong players at my club that I learned what I must do to progress. Get a manageable opening repertoire. 'Manageable' means openings that are not to laden with theory. This does not mean you should play offbeat openings it simply means choose certain lines in mainstream openings that are not going to require massive amounts of time to understand and maintain.

Also you should focus your study of your choosen repertoire on the main ideas and a few critical positions. Understand that the formation of any repertoire is a good deal of work but it is fun and a must if you play in tournaments. I'm still working to complete my repertoire but in my last two tournament games I took the full point from players 200 and 400 points above my USCF rating. Everyone had their own way of learning but this constantly hashed out 'play the opening by general principles' will only take you so far......good luck.

Not quite. He really beats every 2000 player he meets.

For my part, I usually beat every 3000+ (human) player I meet.

Usually i think its all about ur personality, temperament and skill of opponent when choosing openings.

Faster time control strong opponent:Solid openings like CaroKan etc

I"m going to make a rather different suggestion. 

The OP says that "Lately I`ve tried the French and the Tartakower - but without fun and success. At the French I got crushed badly from the flanks whereas the Tartakower seemed way to passive for me - too much room for white in the middle squares, especially for hyper-aggressive players at my level."

Well, WHY are you getting crushed in the French? Why aren't you finding the right responses to white's moves in the Tartakower? 

I'll assume that when you say you've "tried" these openings that you've put in a modicum of work into learning the ideas behidn the openings, you've played over several dozen, if not several hundred, GM games by noted experts in the opening, you've deeply analyzed your own games, you've shown that analysis to better players and asked for their input, you've gotten insight from strong engines, you've noted where you or your opponent deviated from the mainline and you've figured out why it was a sub-par move, you've done all that right?!

If so, then you're not far removed from starting to win with those openings against equal competition. Just keep doing that, along with daily tactics problems and endgame study (focusing on the type of endings common to the openings you play) and you'll get there.

If you haven't done all that, then when you change your openings to something new, you'll have similar results. Oh, you might win one or two games and decide you really like the new stuff better, but you'll just be mistaking a coincidence with improvement, and before long you'll be in the same boat as you are now. 

You only get to know, like, and win with an opening when you know the opening, you know the lines, you know the main ideas, you know how to transition to the middlegame, you know what you're playing for in those middle games, and you know how to convert the endgames that arrise from those positions. And getting all of that down takes work. It's not just memorizing lines. It's much more than that. 

A good craftsman never blames his tools.

Kingpatzer's comment above is virtually the last word.  Know thyself!

Personally I like playing Philidor's Defense against 1.e4, obliging white to attack & requiring black to find a refutation, but I wouldn't play it if I didn't have a 'feel' for the ensuing positions. I like to roll with the punches & then counter-attack.  Against 1.d4 maybe the KID but as with any opening system, you gotta know it inside-out to play it with any confidence.