I the best opening for 1200-1500 players for white & black, the KiSS?.

I'm a late learner of chess in life currently 1200.  I've been scratching around with openings for B&W.  Seems everyone has an opinion.  Recently i was advised by a 2000+ player to try the Benko.  I've found it too difficult to comprehend with my miniscule knowledge & skill.

Then I read in another thread to a similar question the replies came back to the poster "for anyone from 1200 to 1800, the best book to start off your chess career is QGD by Matthew Sadler".  Why?  Because its simple & easy to understand at my level.  downloaded the PDF - seems just what a novice needs.  So i'm ordering the book.

now it seems The Queen's Gambit will cover my play as white & as black to d4.  So do I understand it right, I now just need a simple lower-level setup to repel 1.e4?   So what is a simple system to respond to e4 that's within the comprehension of a 1200-1500 novice??  I'd rather have something common but easy to play than something fancy & off-beat & continually get tangled up.  Been there - done that.

I'm also a late comer to chess.  I told my coach I didn't want to have to learn a lot of theory, he recommended the King's Indian Attack as White, and either the King's Indian Defense (to 1. d4), or the Black Lion (much like the Pirc) in response to 1. e4.  

I have worked with all of these and become comfortable with them.  Since they are all systems, the initial moves are pretty standard, and not so dependent on your opponents opening moves.

What about the Petroff? If you want something more than just e5 Nc6, the Petroff (or Russian Game) doesn't seem like to bad an answer. They say it's drawish, but, I mean, come on - how much does that word mean sub-GM level? White players seem to hate it, too, which can't be a bad thing.

Why would a 2000 recommend the Benko of all things? That's like expecting you to fly a helicopter by just feeling it out... Beginners don't need openings because learning to play the game is more important Try this stuff:http://exeterchessclub.org.uk/content/ten-rules-opening

Don't try memorising it but just take it as advice. It'll stick sooner or later.

Definitely, this is good advice. That's about all you need to know for openings for 1200-1500, even to 1600/1700. Spend your time doing tactics, looking at your losses and playing through annotated games. There's no point in reading a whole book on the QGD and then blundering a rook away on move 27! Stick to tactics and trying to avoid blundering.

as white:

Giuoco piano with 5.d3

French exchange

Caro kann exchange

petrov defence 3.d4

sicillian defence alapin

philidor 3.d4

as black:

philidor exchange variation

Thanks for those replies you guys.  I'll do it.  e4-e5 & d4-d5.    Damn reckless if you ask me, all the same.  Sort of like driving without a GPS.  You never come across this stuff in opening books.

Good man. It doesn't mean that you need to ignore the opening, rather go for opening principles rather than 'lines'. You know it makes sense...

Memorising lines for beginners is like driving blindfolded. Playing by just principles and finding moves on your own way makes sure that you KNOW why you made all the moves you did. Then when you go over your games you can look over your own thoughts and tweak things. People that just memorize can't do that since they won't know why they win or lose unless it's a tactic or something more obvious.

The general consensus is a beginner should open with 1.e4 or 1.d4 ,answer 1.e4 with 1..e5, answer 1.d4 with 1..d5. Castle, and develop your pieces on good squares. You should also solve chess tactics problems and study endgames like, king and pawn endgames, rook mates endgames, queen mates endgames and bishop vs knight with pawns endgames.

The general advice for 1.d4 d5, and 1.e4 e5 is for your general chess education, because learning open games are fundamental opening positions not necessarily easy. The open games,from 1.e4 e5 especially, lead to tactical positions important to practise inorder to improve. The beginner player will learn mostly by being wiped out by more experienced players.

So it depends a lot on your mentality. In early days of chess career can probably survive longer in an individual game by trying to avoid tactics with 1.e4 e6 or something. For long term development probably learn more with 1.e4 e5, but be prepared to lose many games in the beginning.

I agree, the Petroff is a fine way to play 1...e5.

I remember I played the four knights for years as white and black...

My two cents: you can play any opening you feel like as long as you are willing to trust yourself and challenge yourself at the same time.

Get a new coach ;)

Nobody in their right mind would recommend the KID to somebody who doesn't want to learn a lot of theory.

To the OP:

Other posters are right. Until you are at least 1500, I would recommend playing Open games. After 1500, then you can start trying to personalize your style.

Because that's really what openings are. It all comes down to personal preferences and style. At <1500, you simply don't have enough knowledge of the game to make it worthwhile to work on openings.

Yes a coach that recommends buying a bumper opening book on one opening for a 1200-1500, what's going on?

I might have to agree about this KID fiasco, but honestly one really doesn't need to play it perfectly until they get to like 17, 1800 when people find out black is having some problems in the big classical lines. All black really has to know is to castle and play e5 and see what happens. However, the slav is pretty easy to play at a low level and many people there don't play the Queen's Pawn anyway.

If you want to answer e4 with e5 (like i myself do) consider getting the second volume of Gustafsson DVD (http://chessbase-shop.com/en/products/gustafsson_vol2_open_games). Gusti is a  very good presenter and gives a solid reply to any of whites major options with execptions of the Ruy Lopez. Though you can also get his DVD on the Marshall this might be a bit to complex for beginners.

Dissenting view:  if you're not going to be playing chess that long (because you don't have much time, and/or you're getting up there in age) and you just want to get to 1200-1500:  play the French.  It'll fit right in with your QGD.

It takes 2-3 years and a fair bit of work to get the hang of e4/e5, and the investment probably won't be worth it if you aren't that ambitious.  I say this as a lifetime e4/e5 player.

By the way, in case anybody is wondering, this is a different Gustafsson than the one who is given credit for Gustafsson's law in computer science.