How to Choose a Chess Opening | Tactical/Positional Chess Openings Theory Explained | Opening Ideas

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About this video:
Choosing a chess opening can be tough for beginners and intermediate chess players. In this video I show you the different types of chess openings that are available, and why you might choose one over another. I talk about setup-based openings (also called positional openings), and theory-based openings (also called tactical openings). I give examples of each chess opening, including the London system, King's Indian attack, Slav defense, Scandinavian defense (Icelandic gambit) and the King's gambit. I give you the basic chess opening ideas and strategies for each type of chess opening, and give you chess tips and trick to choose the perfect chess opening for you.

[marianorivera]

Other chess content creators might be bigger and more “entertaining”, but when it comes to teaching chess, your are up there with Daniel Naroditsky as the best teachers I’ve personally seen. Thanks for helping me/us.

[chessworld]

Definately f3 g4, I love that opening because the game goes by so quickly

[grizzlyjp]

I'd double Thumbs -Up if I could. I love your channel. You explain chess concepts and tactics so well. I'm gonna call it to say that in 12-18 months, you're going to be the go-to chess channel.
Godspeed!

[pacolibre]

The London system is exactly what I was looking for. A consistent, blunder-free way to get all of my pieces developed. I had no idea that so many setups used a 2nd rank knight; I assumed that was a bad idea.

[GasolineLicker]

If you’re a beginner, I’d say go for the positional openings, and if you really want to gain ELO fast, study a wide variety of tactical openings while playing a positional opening. Don’t study a ton of openings against e4 as black, study an opening for e4, then one for d4, etc. Maybe you play the London for a while while studying the Vienna.

[youtubeviolatedme]

The only potential opponent named "Nelson" whom I respect.

[gvlive]

I really appreciate your delivery. I like a lot of the chess YouTubers, but your communication really hits the right buttons for my learning style. Thanks man!

[JourneyLT]

As a 1800, I've been having a fair amount of success with the Ruy Lopez. When I was weaker I tended to play the Italian and Scotch, but I like the Ruy Lopez now, because it's more complicated, and you can lay traps with your unprotecte e-pawn by pinning the knight that takes it. As Black I tend to play Open Sicilian lines, sometimes the Najdorf, (5.a6) other times the Scheveningen (5.e6), liking the flexibility of my central pawns on d6 and e6.

[meadowdream]

4:08
9:55
10:07
White pov
0:45-0:56
1:19-1:26
2:24-2:45
9:05-9:12
10:07-10:24
Black pov
1:43-1:56
3:20-3:46

[ferdscalibuso]

The first opening I learned is Queens gambit and it's true that it's really hard for to switch to another opening once you get used to it.

[readingtimewithpickle]

This is really such a great channel. I went from around 1200 to pushing 1500 after watching your videos and playing every day.

[thunderingice]

I have been watching you for a couple years now and somehow I am just seeing this video. You really are a great teacher for me personally. I connect with your way of explaning so well. I would REALLY like to see you do a deeper dive into this video... like into the Tactical side of it. (Maybe this already exists... bouta check) Thanks for everything man... you make chess fun for me.

[kristof]

This has been probably the most important video for me in order to understand chess better. Thank you man so much.

[Umslopagas]

I've been playing on and off for the last 35 years, the last 10 years I haven't played much and became rusty. So I've returned to regular play about 3 months ago or so and the first question was what opening to play, I don't have the same memory I had when I was younger to memorize 10 or 15 openings. So I took a different route, basically stick to one opening as white (In my case Ruy Lopez) and 2 defenses for black (In my case the French defense for King openings and the Queen's Indian defense for anything else). I really like how they're broadly categorized here, never thought of it that way really. I would like to add that against King openings, playing the French defense really slows down the game and makes it more into positional than tactical, or that's my own experience.
I've recently come across your channel and I love how you give general ideas about how to envision a game as a whole, which is what a lot of players need, do keep it up.

[jayyrock]

One of the most helpful opening videos on YouTube! Currently the most helpful as of today. The motive was set on how to approach looking at openings. It’s not about gambits that capture queens but this video encourages your personality to select your opening. If you followed the steps suggested, you should end up with an opening you LOVE

[henrysuryanaga]

Very clear and efficient in explaining the concept. I am an E4 player playing either Scotch or Giuco Pianissimo Italian Game and Sicillian as Black against E4 and D6 against D4. I am considering adding one more opening like you said more strategic like Colle or London system, or Slav. Thanks for your video.

[philrobichaud]

man, it's insane that your content is this good and more people don't know about you! Def one of my fav Chess YouTubers since finding your channel :)

[kruksog]

My repertoire as a fairly new player (hovering around 1500 rated chesscom.) As white: Vienna in e4 e5, Alapin in e4 c5, Fantasy against the Caro. As black: caro kann against e4, kings indian against the London, and albin against queens gambit. I've chosen these based on how much fun they are to play, rather than how good I tend to do in them (lol). If I get something that I haven't mentioned (French, modern, Scandinavian) I try to survive on principals and the ideas I have from the openings I do study (the ones above).

Thanks for another great video!

[Elharion]

At an intermediate level I prefer playing stuff that isn’t like common theory. I like to get my opponents out of their comfort zones early

[ferxdemon]

I feel like my style is to really play into the psychology of not letting the other side get what they feel comfortable with. For example, I normally bust out 1. c4 with a knight on c3 and a fianchetto on g2 setup. It's a legitimate way for white to fight for an advantage without doing anything dubious or unsound, and I have seen the positions that arise from this opening thousands of times when my opponents likely sees them in less than 1% of their games. And with black I always bust out the caro against e4, since in my experience it's black's best weapon to attempt to get a quiet game against e4. And against d4 I use the dutch since most d4 players want to just sit back and relax and play another boring queens gambit declined or london system game, and suddenly the position is loaded with imbalances giving both sides loads of attacking chances, and you could basically be lost in a span of 2-3 moves if you're not careful.