What to focus on when playing black?

While I feel like I'm improving with white with the London System and learning tactics and mating patterns, I'm struggling with black.  I think I have played enough games now to be confident in what the stats are telling me about how much worse I'm playing black. 

I usually open with Sicilian Dragon against e4 and King's Indian against d4.  I feel less confident with those openings than with London with white.  They both develop slower in the center.  And I feel like I'm always on the defensive with black.

I've been only playing 10 minute rapid on here and doing puzzles.  

I'm trying to come up with a development plan to improve with black.

You are currently playing at a level where talk of the opening is a bit of a waste of time - to improve from a rating in the 600s to a rating of 1000+ you need to stop hanging pieces and start taking the hanging pieces of your opponent, simple as that. I looked at your last loss with black (which you lost on time in a winning position) It started 1.e4 c5 2.Qh5 demonstrating that whatever opening you play the opponent is not likely to follow anything theoretical. Also you lost on time...i suggest you play the longest games that you have time for and start really focusing on what you are doing, every move thinking carefully. This is the key to learning and improving. Lastly general advice on playing with black...try to aim simply to survive the opening intact, getting development, castled etc. With the black pieces a single mistake can be fatal, whereas with white you can get away with it a bit more easily. Try to equalise first, and then look for your chances. 

never played king’s indian but it looks like a tough one for us up and comers

giving white a huge pawn center can quickly get out of hand if one messes up just a bit

bobby fischer played kid though so look at some of his games as they are great for learning and inspiration (fwiw i play ...d5 vs 1.d4 and usually go into a slav structure if 2. c4)

slav or qgd are classics for a reason though it has taken me two years of complete befuddlement to get a minuscule understanding of the slav

i played the caro kann the same amount of time i started with a slav structure for d4

it served me well until it didnt but it really helped me get out of my comfort zone (learning how to defend all out attacks on castled king, many games where black doesnt castle at all, learning how to use the c5 break)

very recently i feel confident enough to venture i to “just play opening principles”

and i have switched from 1.e4 ...c6 to ...c5

i have none to nominal sicilian theory but i really like it a lot

and bobby fischer was a sicilian monster too (though more in the najdorf and not the dragon or accelerated dragon)

look at some of his games in sicilian too


if you can get developed and castled without white breathing down your neck then you have done well out of the opening

really try to figure out what white is planning to do- dont just blindly play “opening moves” and dont rush as all of our games are out of book by move 5 (often by move 2)- and there are often opportunities for small little victories in the opening if you pay attention

good luck


ps

one thing i would do is stick with an opening setup for awhile- dont keep changing every week

and if your first couple of opening moves are based on a classical opening then you will be ok

You are looking at very complex openings here.  Maybe try something simple at first.  d5 and a little adjusting can work against anything thrown at you at this level, without a lot of deep study, for example. 

This is a discriminatory forum, I'm going to tell the mods to ban you. I have very good connections to the mods.

Troll level 2/10. No originality or humour. 

You think I care about your opinion?

 

P.S. How is this unoriginal? I don't see anybody coming up with such a stupid joke as this lol.

Care enough to respond...OP is a beginner player asking for advice, all you offer is the same lame 'witticism' that has been seen so many times before. Go and do it on the threads that have been started for that purpose, not on one's where people are asking for genuine guidance. 

You are doing better with white because you are reaching familiar positions each time through playing a system opening.

 

This is what typically happens.  They start with e4.  I start the Sicilian Dragon.  Before I can even move g6 to start to setting up my castling,  my opponent begins either an early queen or bishop attack.  I then have to stop my development and work on addressing the threat.  However, I don't always end up with the best pawn structure or development after dealing with the early queen attack.

When I play the London, the system itself addresses most of the incoming attacks that I see at this level.  It's usually an early bishop attack that checks my king.  This is easily dealt with, and my pawn structure generally ends up what what I want.  And the worse case is usually trading a bishop or knight earlier than I want.  I also end up hanging pieces far less with this system.

I did watch the Gotham Chess YouTube video on early queen attacks, and that has helped me some.  But I do have to work on my time management as black as dealing with early attacks usually costs me time thinking through how to deal with them.   Since I'm going second, I feel like I start out defensive right off the bat.  Much easier going first.

I hope I'm explaining this correctly.  I'm a beginner.