Download a gui like arena first.

Queen to play - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1082009/

currently on Netflix streaming if you haven't seen it yet -

I liked it even though it's mildly improbable that a woman who had never played would get that good that fast - I kind of like how she obsessed over the game and used it as an outlet for something else -

also great scenery (corsica, I think) and not an entirely unattractive 40' something Frenchie babe to distract from the board sometimes

Part of the reason is that stronger players are likely less likely to play such a variation. I've never used chessbase, but isn't there a way to compare the ratings of the players to their ratings based on their performances in these games (so you can see if this opening causes them to underperform in general)?

This looks like the exact explanation, in this case. My database shows the position after 5. Nf3 occurring in 246 games where both players show an ELO rating. In those 246 games, white's average rating is 2132 and black's average rating is 2259, which makes white's score of 32% almost exactly what you would expect (it translates to a performance rating of 2128). So the poor score by white is not really a sign that the opening is terrible, just that it tends to occur more often in games where black is the stronger player.

Of course the appearance that strong players show an aversion to entering the line at all, as white, could perhaps itself be taken a commentary on the strength of the opening. Even so, though, it certainly isn't as dire as the 32% score suggests at first glance.

I would like to politely disagree IMO the bolded part in itself is the main measurement you should be looking at as far as opening selection goes.

Just watched it with my wife. She got a French chick flick, I got a chess movie with a hot French chick and a flash of boob. Win win!

Score!

I don't know that we actually disagree at all. My post was an explanation of the opening's statistics, not an evaluation of its quality. Obviously it's not a GOOD opening, both because good players eschew it, and because white has a -4 performance rating with it, when generally white should be at least +25 or so, if the opening is decent. This line is bad. It's not *as* bad as it looks, based solely on white's 32% database score with it, though. And that's the point I was trying to make.

The sentence you bolded was my attempt to acknowledge the most important piece, but to do so subtly and as a sidenote. This was evident in some of my word choice*, but perhaps only if you know me well

*"the appearance that", "aversion", and "could perhaps" would have been your clues as to what I really meant.

I think I actually do better with black than with white.

Thanks for the explanation guys.

Hello.... I lurk this forum so I might as well say hi

Hello!

Torch the lurker! Grab your pitchforks!

lol... I always lurked because I never thought I had anything usefull to add. You guys all seem like such solid players..... the only thing I can do is learn here. I love playing chess (its by far my fav game to play) but I play blitz games 99% of the time online....( I have over 25,000 3 min games played) I do enjoy reading your guys threads though... and I hope you guys dont mind me asking a question once in a while.

Mind? On the contrary, we welcome it! I'm sure there's a lot of value to be gained from lurking this forum, but I think you can get much more out of it by actively asking questions. Go for it

I post all the time and I havent provided any value at all.

Also several of us are not solid players.

Please everyone post and ask questions. That's what the forum is for!

Also you probably have a question that a bunch of lurkers have as well, but are too shy/meek/afraid to ask themselves.

Can anyone explain to me why everyone's favorite openings on ICC for blitz chess is the Berlin defense and the Grand Prix closed sicilian? I'm just seeing it all over the place and I'm beating them just fine I just don't get all of the love for it.

GP is a perennial club player favorite since it's pretty straightforward to play as White and Black can get into trouble easily if he doesn't know what he's doing. The love for Berlin is new though, maybe people are following fashion

I also lurk here and need to participate more.

Currently studying the colle system for white. I need something to get started and this looks like it can offer a promising attack vs my fellow low rated opponents. I also need to come up with a defense for black. Thinking about the caro-kan and slav when black.

I would suggest playing an opening system as White where it matters what your opponent does. I'm definitely guilty of having playing a system opening for a long time (Botvinnik) when I was starting out and I can't recommend it. Not that these are so bad for White, but you'll get better results and learn more by just playing straightforward attacking chess.

Playing "normal-looking" opening moves (and then looking up lines when things turn out badly) is going to serve you better in the long term. 1.e4 is standard advice here.

But let me give a slightly ridiculous alternative, just to encourage someone to improve upon it: play d4 and meet d5 with c4, intending to play Nf3+Bg5, and to aim for e4+e5, or Nf3-e5+f4. I don't believe that you'd get worse results with that "system" than with the Colle, and I don't think it'd be any more difficult to play.

Especially if you plan on improving for a while, avoiding mainstream lines now will just double your work in the future. (And low-rated players generally are terrible at defending, and especially defending cramped positions. That's something to keep in mind both as White, but also in selecting the Caro-Kann as Black. But I've recently adopted both Slav+Caro, so I won't say anything else against them.)

That's how i played the QGD for years (and still do). Once i played a decent guy (2000 ELO), mated him and even in the analysis he didn't believe my attack (i had everything pointed at his K, even a rook lifted to g3). You can still surprise a lot of people who think that white's attacking options in the QGD are limited to the Q-side.

The Pillsbury Attack is a pretty fearsome option for white is black doesn't know how to neutralize it effectively. Part of the problems from black's perspective is white's attack plays itself so naturally.

Most definitely not my favourites! However I'm a bit strange when it comes to opening choices ... :P