The Black Mirror Style

We all (in the amateur level) have encountered here or there a few people who enjoy copying the white moves during the opening when playing black.

This will most likely end badly for black for two basic reasons:

1-He is a tempo behind (once the first threat is made, he'll have to respond accordingly or risk getting slaughtered)

2- His opponent is doing all the thinking and when the time comes to break the simetry, white will surely have a better insight on the position.

Despite theese facts; the mirror style on a smart player can be dangerous and a useful psycological tool. If he actually evaluates the position he'll know exactly WHEN to jump of the copy-train and maybe even ruin an anxious white player's day.

What do you guys think about this? I'd like to see games you  won from either side of the mirror-style.

Well, let's take a couple of absolute main lines -- 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 and now 3...Nxe4 isn't as good as 3...d6, and 1.d4 d5 2.c4 and now 2...c5 is a bit dubious.

It is possibly to play symmetrically for a long time against the English though.

Thinking of everything from a "mirror-style" is the wrong approach, and I never think this way.  If Black's moves happen to mimic White's, so be it.  The important thing is understanding what is going on.  Some openings feature a more symmetrical nature than others.

For example, the "book line" that I can think of with the longest symmetrical factor would be the Spanish Four Knights, 4...Bb4 variation, which is specifically 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bb5 Bb4 5.O-O O-O 6.d3 d6 7.Bg5 and only now is 7...Bg4 a mistake.  I am not totally up on my Four Knights theory as I don't even play 1.e4, but I do know that there is a game that went something like this:

7...Bg4? 8.Nd5 (I know this is the supposed bust) Nd4 9.Nxf6+ gxf6 10.c3 Nxf3+ 11.gxf3 Bh3 12.Bh6 Bxf1 13.Bxf8 Qxf8 14.Qxf1 Qg7+ 15.Qg2 c6 (to keep symmetry) 16.cxb4 cxb5 17.Qxg7+! (Symmetry Broke!) Kxg7 18.Rc1 (White gets in first)

But again, for the openings I do play, I make sure I understand what the main ideas are, understand why the standard moves are the standard moves, what is wrong with the alternatives, etc, not garbage like "Is this symmetrical" or "Say, look how pretty the pawns are - I like the Crossword Puzzle pattern", etc etc.