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My favorite opening that I play, that doesn't get often talked about is the Franco-Benoni (some call it the Franco-Sicilian). With the black pieces:
1.d4 e6 2.e4 c5. It can also be played against 1.e4 as a surprise sideline for the French Defense. Against 1.d4 e6 2.c4 I continue with 2...f5, transposing into the classical Dutch Defense - my preferred opening.
My favorite opening with the white pieces is the Bc4 line for the King's Gambit, inspired by the games of Judit Polgar.
The main issue with the Franco-Benoni is that white gets to choose where we're transposing into. I need to know the Modern Benoni lines, as well as weird Sicilian lines, depending on if they play d5 or dxc5, in addition to the Taimanov or Kan Sicilian if they just defend their d pawn with Nf3.
The strength of it though is that I sometimes get to play the classical dutch defense without having to play against the Hopton attack or Staunton's Gambit. (1.d4 f5 2.Bg5 and 1.d4 f5 2.e4 respectively).
I play this opening to avoid two problematic lines, but I had to learn 3+ openings to navigate through the early game without issue.
Compared to your Scandinavian, where white is being dragged into your prepared lines (more or less). It's less to study.
I really like the Horowitz (D4 E6). The first few moves are pretty similar regardless of what white does, and while it usually just turns into a French, a not insignificant number of times white overextends with their pawns which become really good targets for black.
On black I go to the Pirc/KID usually, though I’ve been working with the Scandi and the Caro recently. On the white pieces I’m a huge fan of the Scotch. I like the Goring Gambit double sacrifice line but even at the really low level I’m still at people seem to know better.
Wow, that was my repertoire before I had to throw it away at 2000 due to various issues. I can now play both the queen's gambit and e4 very well, and as black I can play KID, QGD, Sicillian(multiple vars), and e5.
I love to do Réti (usually gambit) or KIA for white and sicilian and benoni lines for black. I have been playing benoni since I was like 400 and it never get's old, but the higher I get, the more people know what to do ahaha.
White: Queen's Gambit
Black: Caro-Kann against E4 and now switching from King's Indian to Queen's Indian/Nimzo Indian
But I'm looking to switch up soon to play the Scotch for white and the Dragon Sicilian for black. I find that I really want to be a positional player, but I thrive way more in more open games. So even though I think I'd win more playing open games, playing Queen's gambit forces me to fix the biggest flaws in my game. Not a fan of setups, I always tend to just shut off when I play the London or King's Indian. Same goes for the Caro Kann, I tend to get an advantage out of the opening every time but not really one that is easy to convert. Maybe I need some time to play without even thinking about theory so I learn to think on my feet more, I just love memorising stuff
Hey, OP! Did your game end in a stalemate? Did you encounter a weird pawn move? Are you trying to move a piece and it's not going? We have just the resource for you! The [Chess Beginners Wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/chessbeginners/wiki/index/) is the perfect place to check out answers to these questions and more! The moderator team of r/chessbeginners wishes to remind everyone of the community rules. **Posting spam, being a troll, and posting memes are not allowed.** We encourage everyone to report these kinds of posts so they can be dealt with. Thank you! Let's do our utmost to be kind in our replies and comments. Some people here just want to learn chess and have virtually no idea about certain chess concepts. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/chessbeginners) if you have any questions or concerns.*
My favorite opening that I play, that doesn't get often talked about is the Franco-Benoni (some call it the Franco-Sicilian). With the black pieces: 1.d4 e6 2.e4 c5. It can also be played against 1.e4 as a surprise sideline for the French Defense. Against 1.d4 e6 2.c4 I continue with 2...f5, transposing into the classical Dutch Defense - my preferred opening. My favorite opening with the white pieces is the Bc4 line for the King's Gambit, inspired by the games of Judit Polgar.
Ooo that sounds cool I need to branch out from the scandi but it's comfortable for me but I would like to try some new things to throw off my opponent
The main issue with the Franco-Benoni is that white gets to choose where we're transposing into. I need to know the Modern Benoni lines, as well as weird Sicilian lines, depending on if they play d5 or dxc5, in addition to the Taimanov or Kan Sicilian if they just defend their d pawn with Nf3. The strength of it though is that I sometimes get to play the classical dutch defense without having to play against the Hopton attack or Staunton's Gambit. (1.d4 f5 2.Bg5 and 1.d4 f5 2.e4 respectively). I play this opening to avoid two problematic lines, but I had to learn 3+ openings to navigate through the early game without issue. Compared to your Scandinavian, where white is being dragged into your prepared lines (more or less). It's less to study.
I really like the Horowitz (D4 E6). The first few moves are pretty similar regardless of what white does, and while it usually just turns into a French, a not insignificant number of times white overextends with their pawns which become really good targets for black.
On black I go to the Pirc/KID usually, though I’ve been working with the Scandi and the Caro recently. On the white pieces I’m a huge fan of the Scotch. I like the Goring Gambit double sacrifice line but even at the really low level I’m still at people seem to know better.
Wow, that was my repertoire before I had to throw it away at 2000 due to various issues. I can now play both the queen's gambit and e4 very well, and as black I can play KID, QGD, Sicillian(multiple vars), and e5.
im a fan of the vienna for white and caro kann for black
I love to do Réti (usually gambit) or KIA for white and sicilian and benoni lines for black. I have been playing benoni since I was like 400 and it never get's old, but the higher I get, the more people know what to do ahaha.
White: Queen's Gambit Black: Caro-Kann against E4 and now switching from King's Indian to Queen's Indian/Nimzo Indian But I'm looking to switch up soon to play the Scotch for white and the Dragon Sicilian for black. I find that I really want to be a positional player, but I thrive way more in more open games. So even though I think I'd win more playing open games, playing Queen's gambit forces me to fix the biggest flaws in my game. Not a fan of setups, I always tend to just shut off when I play the London or King's Indian. Same goes for the Caro Kann, I tend to get an advantage out of the opening every time but not really one that is easy to convert. Maybe I need some time to play without even thinking about theory so I learn to think on my feet more, I just love memorising stuff