Ru Lopez the ru Lopez also known as the Spanish opening is one of those chess openings that's been around longer than your Grandma's favorite recipe this thing is ancient but has been played in many top level events from World Chess championships to pog Champs the Roy lopz starts after the moves E4 E5 Knight F3 Knight C6 and Bishop B5 white fights for the control of the central D4 and E5 squares and indirectly threatens the black E5 Pawn by attacking its only Defender black on the other hand has a hard time getting an advantage in this opening and some people refer to it as the Spanish torture bongcloud bongcloud is a meme opening where white disrespects Black by moving the king up on the second move of the game this opening was popularized by Grandmaster hakura nakamuro who played the bongcloud every game and reached 3,000 ELO on chess.com a feat held by less than 40 people in the entire freaking world and there we go oh oh yeah Magnus Carlson later also adopted this opening and played it in big tournaments the game ended in a draw which reminds me of a quote chess when played perfectly is a draw intercontinental ballistic missile the intercontinental ballistic missile is a ballistic missile with a range greater than 5,500 kilom that's quite big primarily designed to smash your opponent's Queen and make the opponent's king wifeless the opening starts with Knight F3 D5 and then sacrificing the pawn after a bunch of provoking moves we finally get to this POS position where white sacrifices the Knight to Fork Black's rook and queen taking seems like the only reasonable option so black takes and there goes the wife Fool's mate Fool's mate is the Checkmate delivered after the fewest possible moves from the game starting position like this are you winning she's not going to see this [ __ ] coming naidorf the naidorf variation of the Sicilian Defense is one of the most popular reputable and deeply studied of all chess openings the key idea for black is to control the D5 Square while the A6 pawn move prevents white from easily advancing on the B5 Square this opening has been a dangerous weapon for many world champions and Hikaru also loves it too so many top Grand Masters played it for so long and is such a solid idea such a solid opening even now 20 years later everybody plays it without a doubt for me um I think I would put it at the very top of legendary I think if you're a beginner though don't play this opening as lovy hates it why why are you a beginner trying to play the nidorf Berlin defense the Berlin defense is a defense against the Roy Lopez where black develops the other Knight to F6 attacking White's Central Pawn the most common continuation is the castling of the white king and black smashes the pawn this variation leads to an equal wifeless middle game where Gary Kasparov couldn't penetrate and lost his classical World Champ trophy against kramnick after 15 years of holding the title grinfeld the grinfeld defense is a hyper modern opening that starts with D4 Knight F6 C4 G6 Knight C3 D5 the key concept behind the grinfeld is to allow white to build a big white center which black aims to undermine with pieces this opening is a fantastic choice for people like Magnus Carlson or Hikaru Nakamura but for beginners like most of you mother who are watching don't even think about playing this opening as it's too complicated and your butt will be kicked Kings Indian defense the Kings Indian defense is a super aggressive opening and can be played against pretty much any opening this has been confirmed by chess page 1 the Kings Indian setup can be played against E4 D4 Knight F3 literally anything this is a perfect opening if you're a black Indian if you're a white Indian though you can't play this opening as that would be racist the Kings Indian usually starts with the same setup where black builds a big black Cozy home and lets white control the center after some maneuvering we usually see white launching attacks on the queen side while black shoves pawns and pieces down the king side King's Indian attack for those of you White Indians out there this is a perfect opening for you not only are you able to play a very aggressive and exciting opening but you also remain super woke and keep your white supremacy down the opening looks almost exactly like the king's Indian defense but on the opposite side Sicilian Defense this opening starts with E4 C5 and quickly goes into wildly different variations like the najdorf variation Smith MOA Gambit and Clos Sicilian this opening is one of the most complex openings in chess but always give black a fighting chance if you're under 2,000 ELO though you should not play it Petrov the Petrov is a not so common opening especially at lower levels the Petrov starts by white playing e45 Knight to F3 and Knight to F6 counterattacking the E4 Pawn this opening is dry AF and is used by top level players to force a draw as black during the World Chess Championship in 2021 Ian nepom niaki played this opening too much and made Magnus Carlson tired of competing and gave up his title Queen's Gambit the Queen's Gambit is one of the most popular openings out there it starts by playing D4 D5 and then C4 seemingly throwing away a pawn and thus the Gambit part in the name however if black takes on C4 he's kind of f as white gets a huge development advantage and will inevitably regain that pawn a better and more common way to handle this opening as black is to play the Queen's Gambit declined by playing moves such as E6 or C6 Marshall attack the Marshall attack is an incredibly dangerous opening in the Roy Lopez it begins by playing D5 in this position at the cost of One Singular Pawn black can get a huge attack that will leave white trembling if he doesn't know the theory Italian the Italian is one of the most popular openings as white it is is a very principled opening as it develops two pieces in Rapid manner while also pressuring Black's position one of its main strengths is that it is really simple to play and the moves just play themselves this was actually my main opening until I reached 18800 ELO at 1800 ELO I switched to play The Bong cloud and immediately after a month I gained 500 ELO Catalan the Catalan is an incredibly solid opening it starts by playing D4 D5 and then white goes for a kingside fianchetto setup later in the middle game white will try to open up the center in order to activate the G2 Bishop if you want a chill and interesting game without too much risk this is the perfect opening for you English the English opening is a flexible and strategic chess opening that begins with the move C4 a fun fact about this opening is that it can transpose to other openings easily for example if black plays E5 then it is a sicilian with white this opening can be really useful to trick your opponents into playing the opening you really want to play by transposing nimol Larson attack the nimol Larson attack was most notoriously played by The Grandmaster bent Larson in the 90s and then later on by fiser the opening starts with B3 following the hypermodern school of Chess where the center is controlled by pieces instead of Pawns it is a simple opening where white fianchetto the Queen's bishop and controls the board from afar Tash French the terish French is a variation that white chooses in the French it starts by playing E4 E6 D4 D5 and then Knight to D2 although the knight move is unnatural as it blocks the D2 Bishop the objective is to protect the center with C3 if black plays C5 as it is normal in the French defense and also to avoid any nasty pins that could happen if the Knight were on C3 nimzo Indian defense the nimzo Indian defense is a chess opening that starts with D4 Knight F6 C4 E6 Knight C3 Bishop B4 black pins White's Knight to pressure the center and control the board it is a very solid opening but still keep things spicy leading to Rich and complex positions slav the slav defense is a variant of the Queen's Gambit decline that arises from playing C6 in the Queen's Gambit it focuses on reinforcing the D5 Pawn with the C6 Pawn aiming for a strong and flexible position the slab defense allows black to develop pieces easily while maintaining a solid Pawn structure making it a popular choice for players who prefer a more methodical and defensive approach this open often leads to balanced positions with Rich strategic possibilities Sicilian Dragon the Sicilian dragon is one of the most popular choices by black In the Sicilian it is an opening with only one purpose destruction if white decides to Castle queenside the game will become a bloody Battlefield that only one person gets out alive caroan the caroan defense is an extremely solid and defensive chess opening where black aims to challenge the center on the second move with D5 whilst maintaining a strong Pawn Str structure if someone plays this opening against you expect a longer game as it is hard to win quickly due to the solid nature of Black's setup ready opening the radi opening has its own name for literally no reason it starts by playing Knight to F3 and yeah that's it that's the whole opening right there I ain't not joking in fact most of the time it actually transposes into real openings for example if black plays C5 white plays E4 and we are in a sicilian if black plays D5 and we play D4 we can reach a Catalan if we play G3 and Bishop to G2 thus the ready opening is basically a way to wait and see what black does to decide what you want to do London system the London system is one of the most solid but boring AF opening on Earth no matter what your opponent plays you always get to a setup that looks like this this is good for beginners but for intermediate players out there seriously bro play something more exciting Scotch the scotch is an aggressive opening by white that aims to open the position as fast as possible and bring a fight to the board by challenging the center early on black is forced to choose between defending the pawn or capturing on D4 in either cases there's a way for white to smash black French defense the French is a decently popular opening by black that arises from playing the quiet E6 move after white plays the mainstream E4 with this move black allows white to claim the center with both Pawns in order to challenge it with D5 a lot of the time black will also play C5 and pressure the D4 pawn and F6 to develop his Knight to a favorable square one thing to remember is that the battle revolves around controlling the E5 Square Dutch defense it is called a defense but it acts more like an attack by playing F5 on the first move the king is weak which makes this opening risky however this move allows black to go nuts if needed as after castling the F Pawn is not on the seventh rank but on the fifth this Pawn is really useful in case black wants to beat the out of white perk the perk is a passive opening by black it doesn't challenge the center with pawns but rather with pieces more often than not black will have a cramped position as white will take advantage of the slow play by black to claim space in the center it is a decent opening that is perfect to surprise a stupid opponent who doesn't study openings filor defense the filor is a meh opening by passively defending the E5 Pawn with his own Pawn black retains a decently solid structure at the cost of delayed development it is playable but I personally wouldn't recommend it unless your ELO is super low in which case opening doesn't really matter as much King's Gambit the king's Gambit is one hell of an opening not because it is good don't get me wrong but rather because it is a show by sacrificing one of the most important kingside pawns on the second move white tries to wreak havoc on the board at lower levels white normally grabs back the pawn due to stupid play by black achieving a great position however as your opponents become smarter you're pretty much fed as soon as you play it please help me polish the Polish opening is the better-looking cousin of the grob by playing B4 on the first move white prepares to fianchetto the C1 Bishop while also claiming space on the queen side however due to it being way too early the B4 Pawn is more of a Target than an asset honestly if someone ever plays this against you online they're probably just trolling bonon the bonon defense is a way for black to respond against 1 D4 in a more aggressive manner by challenging the center with a flank Pawn black leads the game to an unbalanced state in order to play for a win a lot of the times white will advance the pawn to D five and black will exchange that pawn with a six when this happens the C4 square is a very contested territory as white will try to place a night there while black will try to prevent it from happening Smith MOA the Smith MOA is the best Gambit in Sicilian by far by sacrificing a pawn white gains a huge lead in development which in turn leads to a high attack potential if black messes up at any point white will easily capitalize on that and soon emerge Victorious hippo the hippo is a defensive setup that consists of putting the pieces below the middle ranks by fiance Shing both Bishops and by having a solid Pawn structure black waits for an opportunity to strike this setup is not that ambitious but can certainly prove great against impatient opponents fried liver the fried liver is a normal Italian game that suddenly went from a seemingly okay position white starts sacrificing pieces and takes Black's King to a walk through hell this trap is of such Effectiveness that once activated will leave black wishing that he had never decided to learn chess in the first place Danish Gambit the Danish Gambit is the untalented brother of the Smith MOA although it follows the same principle of getting a development lead as its sibling it isn't quite as good due to the fact that black can already develop his Bishop whereas in the Mora he can only develop his Queen Scandinavian defense the Scandinavian defense is a pretty decent opening although black goes against all principles and develops his Queen early on it isn't really that much of a problem due to the fact that it will either go back to its starting square or settle nicely in A5 normally in this opening white will go for D4 and Castle King side whilst black will Castle Queen side and play for the center alak's defense the alakin defense is a weird opening instead of playing normal useful moves black rage baits white with his Knight jumping to a new Square every time white decides to attack it after white gets tired of bullying that night black starts the Counterattack with D6 and develops all his pieces Fred in the Fred defense black develops his King and starts trash talking his opponent it looks kind of similar to The Bong cloud and is equally disrespectful which is why a lot of players fell in love with it since you're probably a low ELO player I highly recommend giving this a try as you probably lose all your games anyway so why not lose while mocking your opponent Jerome Gambit the Jerome Gambit is a Gambit of not a pawn but rather of the entire game this opening was probably born because some trash 700 ELO player confused the fried liver with this and tried it anyway although it seems like white will get the piece back and can enjoy a bad but existing attack black can simply protect the piece with his King and refuse to give it away sodium attack the sodium attack is a poor attempt at an excuse by a chemistry Enthusiast that plays chess the name comes from the first move Knight to A3 which in its annotation form is sodium on the periodic table even though this opening is just a joke it is much better than the stupid Fred or Jerome Gambit and is actually playable so yeah give it a try I guess