Which Opening Gives You Grief?

           Is there a particular chess opening that causes you sleepless nights and
premature  gray hair?
            For example, no matter what I do, I always somehow manage to lose
a pawn at the beginning of the French.  This doesn't make sense, as I have
memorized the line out past ten moves.  And yet come game time I somehow
botch it , whether I am black or white.  It's like hitting crisp iron after iron on
the driving range only to miss every green on the golf course.
           Also, the Caro-Kann gives me fits as black, because inevitably like
Steinitz I trap myself on the first three rows.  Unlike the great man, however,
I can pull off no Houdini-esque escape.
           So what opening is your worse for white, and what is your worse for
black?  And do you spend extra time practicing them?

Scandinavian

Hehe - great post!

As White I play 1. e4 exclusively and though I am not a fan of seeing my opponent reply with the French, I'm well-versed enough to hold my own. The Caro-Kann, however, really gets my undies in a bunch right away. I just hate playing against it. I don't understand it well, and it's really the one legitimate Black reply to my first move that I have not booked up on well enough to feel comfortable.

When playing Black, for pretty much the same reasons that give rise to my hatred for the Caro-Kann, I despise when White plays 1. c4. The English Opening is just so hard for me to wrap my head around and the transpositional possibilities are so vast that I don't want to delve into studying it. The funny thing is that I really like playing the Sicilian as Black and I know that 1. c4 e5 leads to a "Sicilian with colors reversed", but I hate playing it as Black against the English.

I'm curious what other people have to say about this topic. Again, great post! Lots of fun to discuss.

As Black 1.d4 when they know how to play against the Englund & the Caro Kan't & French against my 1.e4 as White.

i hate playing against the english opening, personally.  Its like a polite way of saying," the sicilian works so good for black, it should work for white too."

Playing as white, what always annoys me is the ever annoing petroff defense.

Thats not really a benoni, is it?

As white, I can't stand playing against the Petrov, or some less-popular Sicilian lines such as Sicilian Kan or Sicilian Taimanov. As black, Sicilian Alapin is a problem, no antidote so far. Same for Trompowsky, rare enough to be annoying.

QUEEN GAMBIT!!!!

ARRG!!

im 15 and im losing hair from this opening..

!!! i dont lose pawns just i have a good losing record from thosE!!!

it annoys me when they push the gambited pawn up also!!!

Any type of Sicilian.  Those openings are inscrutable to a knucklehead like me.

The Nimzo. I score like 30% against it as white...

I'm a knucklehead but love it when 1...c5 comes along.

Do some research on the Morra, learn the basic motifs & maybe have some fun against the Sicilian!

You're a 1500 & you'll pummel un-prepared similarly rated players when you kick them out of book on move 2.

Okay Steve, I'll give 'er the ol' college try, just to have some fun against the Sicilian.

I tend to get my butt kicked as White against the French.  And I'm sad to admit that as Black, I'm already thinking "resign" at the sight of 1. d4.  :)

I do not enjoy facing the Petroff when I am White or the Bird's opening when I am Black

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Bc4 Nxe4 4.Nc3 Nxc3 5.dxc3 is an interesting attempt to avoid the usual Petroff boredom.

              Interesting comments so far.  I see the Caro-Kann is a problem for a lot of you as well.  Also, some of you don't even like to see d4 at all.  It's no surprise the
Sicilian gives many people fits, it is such a sharp opening.

Boring, drawish, can be used to play for a win, dynamic. We got you.

That opening can also be reached via 1. e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nf6 3.Nf3, but I think it's telling that even in an opening which doesn't offer promising results, like the Bishop's opening, pretty much nobody goes in for this position as white. Also, 3...Nf6 transposes to the Two Knights' defense, another option for black if, for some strange reason, (s)he isn't having success with 3...Nxe4

Edit: I'm referring to SteveCollyer's line in post #20

Yeah 4...Nd6 is probably a bit more solid than 4...Nxc3 which clearly plays into White's hands.

I've won a few games as White playing the line in post #20 a couple OTB when opponents overrate the doubled c-pawns but the lead in development & open lines are well worth it for the attack-minded player.

SteveCollyer--I have played that line against the Petroff for years--well before it became fashionable and it still gives me fits.