By favorite I mean which ones do you win with most often? I know the best players in the world need to vary their openings quite a bit based on past history with their opponents and in order to surprised their opponents. However, if you have no past history with your opponent, then it seems to me that you can use any opening you want...and I assume most of you have favorites.

Furthermore, I remember reading that Kraminik uses the same opening with Black pretty much every time. Also, in a book I read about a high school chess team, the 2400 rated player on the team used the same opening each game.

I am running late for work so I can't add more to this right now. In addition to using the name of the opening, please list the first few moves of it. Thanks.

I kept track of this when I was playing regularly in tournaments.

White
Ruy Lopez: 59.6%; 25 wins, 16 losses, 6 draws (6-1-1 against Chigorin)
Sicilian: 55.0%; 17 wins, 13 losses, 10 draws (6-3-1 against Dragon- classical variation, 4-2-2 against Accelerated Dragon- Maroczy Bind)

French Defense: 40.0%; 6 wins, 9 losses, 0 draws (1-3 against Steinitz, 1-5 against Winawer)
Petrov's Defnese: 0.0%; 0 wins, 4 losses

Black
Petrov's Defense: 65.6%; 8 wins, 3 losses, 5 draws (3-0-1 against 5 Qe2 variation)

Dutch Defense: 36.1%; 4 wins, 9 losses, 5 draws (1-4-3 in Leningrad variation)

white with queen's pawn d4,

as black c5

Kings Indian attack with white 66%
E4 w scotch or a goering gambit 34%
KID as black 100% to D4
or Sicilian 2..e6 most times and some french.

Accelerated Dragon whenever possible. Why? Coolest name for an opening ever.

As Black, the Sicilian Najdorf; even Karpov played it.

in fact I recommend you stick to openings named after animals, as openings named after people or places are generally unsound.

For mainstays of your repertoire you can play the Dragon, the Pelikan, the Hippopotamus, and of course the Hedgehog. If you are feeling more adventurous perhaps it's time for the Orang-utan, the Snake Benoni, or the Vulture.

Favorite and most winning are probably different, for me. I tend to be a serial monogamist with respect to openings, so any interesting patterns in terms of winning percentage are likely due to my opponent quality.

For example, I'm sure that my opponents score worse against the Sicilian when they play sidelines as opposed to mainlines, but that's in part because weaker players tend to play sidelines and stronger players tend to engage in mainlines.

Allow me to introduce "The Hyper-Accelerated Dragon".

Hmm. Hedgehog works for Black...but what to play as White?

You could play Bird's and really confuse things with an opening named after a person named after an animal.

If you really want to go with the Bird thing, you've got:

Bird's Opening: 1. f4

Bird's Attack in the Italian Game: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. c3 Nf6 5. b4 (either followed by or continued to be defined by: 5...Bb6 6. d3)

Ruy Lopez, Bird's Variation: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nd4

I wonder which is most playable...

Bird's opening: not bad, but kind of unambitious.

Bird's attack in the Italian Game: pretty crappy, the pawn on b4 just weakens White's position.

Bird's Ruy Lopez: a good practical try, but not theoretically sound.

I think we need an expert ornithologist ITT to settle this debate.

Favorite opening: Danish gambit. Wide open free-wheeling action for white if accepted. Roll with 4. Bc4, cxb2 5. Bxc2 and it's bonkers.





Black must be precise or it's deep-six.

with white always the english c4 with some cool transposing in the catalan, one of the greatest opening imo .

vs e4 with black always sicilian ( hoping for poison pawn variation )

vs d4 or c4 , if i have the chance with black, imo one of the best sound gambit out there (being white or black) , the benko gambit

or the dutch vs any other move by white

By eliminating the openings that I suck at the most, I've arrived at d4 intending QG. I'll play along with KID till the center locks then throw pieces at the Q side. Vs nimzo or QID I put my Q on c2 and hope you hang something. Vs Fried Liver Bc5, Bxf2 or reluctantly defend if you don't take on f7.

Ruy Lopez as black and hope you hang something. If I'm feeling froggy I might play Petroff's. Vs d4 it's KID, throw everything at the K side.

Any opinions on the fried liver opening? I love it and it seems to work well on amatures (I am one myself!)

http://chessteacherlessons.com/fried-liver-attack/

Often when my opponent brings out his queen early in his opening, I think "Ship it, this game is over." But, those games are almost always pretty stressful. Are there any "proven" openings involving bringing the queen out early? I feel like I remember seeing a line like that for black.

Scandinavian is proly the most notable example.

The Scandinavian goes 1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 - White can gain some time attacking the Queen but practice shows that it's not enough to give White a serious advantage.

There are a few similar openings like the Alapin variation of the Sicilian: 1.e4 c5 2.c3 d5 3.exd5 Qxd5.

An example for White is the main line of the Winawer French:
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 c5 5.a3 Bxc3 6.bc Ne7 7.Qg4 - White brings out his Queen with no other pieces in the game in order to threaten the weak pawn on g7. This goes against "chess principles" but it is considered to be White's best answer to the line with 3...Bb4.

Scotch. 1 e4 e5 2 nf3 nc6 3 d4 exd4 4 nxd4 bc5 5 nxc6 Qf6.

I don´t have many favourite openings, but am very strong in the unfavourite department. When I was still a 1.e4 guy I intensely disliked the French, followed by any Sicilian since there would always pop up some line or variation I had not studied (hard enough). Too much theory in the mainlines led me to the Closed Sicilian and the Grand Prix Attack, to ultimately abandon 1.e4 unless the database shows my opponent does not play the French or Sicilian.

As a 1. d4 guy I intense dislike(d) the Benkö Gambit since it seems impossible to find a line where White instead of Black has the initiative and the opening just ´plays easy´for Black. I was kind of disappointed that Avrukh in his latest (1.d4 repertoire) book recommends the fianchetto against the Benkö since it leads to kinda stodgy positions with lotsa piece shuffling without a clear plan for White, although I might be exaggerating slightly.

I also had a hard time finding something suitable against the KID and the Grunfeld, but hey, if I´m lucky my opponents are either non-Sicilian/French playing Benkö/KID/Grünfeld defenders or non-Benkö/KID/Grünfeld defenders of the Sicilian/French. Read twice if you don´t understand this. And there is always 1.c4 of course.

The Frankenstein-Dracula

The Evans Gambit used to be so much fun to play against juniors and weaker class players. More often than not, opponents elected to not return the pawn, making for some exciting and quick and short games.

I've been meaning to test out the Grob in a few blitz games just for kicks. I doubt the majority of players would be able effectively refute it otb.

White:
Reti opening/King's Indian attack.

Black:
King's Indian Defense.

-- I like tight, meticulous games, over more open games, which is why I like these openings. Also, they're the ones I've studied the most and feel the most comfortable with.