What is the Best openings for 1200 elo


Openings that are easy to play
White: giuoco piano pianissimo variation, scotch, queens gambit
Black: French, Sicilian, slav, etc.
Once you learn the ideas of an opening the theory gets much easier

White : Queens Gambit, Italian, Evans Gambit, Scotch, Open Sicilian, Alapin, Nc3 French, Advance Caro.
Black : e4 e5, Caro, French, Najdorf, Slav, Nimzo Indian, Queens Indian

White - English Opening, Four Knights Game, Queen's Gambit, Nimzowitsch Defense, Larsen Opening, Nimzo Indian and Reti
Black - Open Sicillian, French, Caro Kann Variations, King's Indian, Queen's Gambit Declined and Nimzo-Larsen.
Both - London System, Slav, Ruy Lopez, Scotch, Alekhine Defense, etc.

pawn on d4 and then move only the queen at random losing it sensationally with a mistake (much used by my opponents)

Hi! There is no best answer, since depends on your current repertoire. I normally recomend at your level to stick with your main opening as White (either 1.e4 or 1.d4) but study deeper the variations you play. As Black I suggest to pick one of the big three semi-open games (Sicilian, French or Caro-Kann) and at a higher level add a new defense against 1.d4.
Please check my blog for more details:
https://www.chess.com/blog/maafernan/openings-for-intermediates
Good luck!


There are no best openings at any level of play. There are only openings with less theory and those with more. Find one that you enjoy playing and study. I am a big advocate for getting a copy of Modern Chess Openings and go exploring all the openings that are available.

There are no best openings at any level of play. There are only openings with less theory and those with more. Find one that you enjoy playing and study. I am a big advocate for getting a copy of Modern Chess Openings and go exploring all the openings that are available.
Disagree. There are more and less effective openings at every level.
Op, Ideally you should tailor your openings for your "final destination level". So what is it?