WHAT IS THE BEST OPENINGS

I was asked quite often by beginners this question. Now it's time to set light on them. There is no such thing as best openings. If someone claim otherwise, it's just an opinion.

 All the openings are good. What is important is what comes after the opening. There was an incident when two of my chess friends were fighting on which is a better opening. The first one's opening was Sicilian defence and the second was French defence both against 1. e4.

The sicilian guy uses lots of computer analysis and he's quite an addict. He would switch on his computer just after his game is over and run houdini to see his mistakes. The french guy was more board oriented. He believes that thou shall not touch a computer before he had exhausted his brain. The first guy was clever (I play sicilian defence) and bets Rs.200 on the second guy which the french agreed. Both asked for my opinion since I was a much better player than them. I said sicilian defence with clear conscience. The guy jump up in joy and said, "See I told you." He was celebrating but the other guy was red faced.

 Later, I found out that they were betting on my answer. Now, I regretted for saying sicilian is a better opening not because it is worse than french defense. It was my opinion back then since I play it and know better than other openings. It had consequence in my case. For others it could just be harmless to say which is a better opening according to him/her.

So if someone, say for example world chess champion play King's Indian Defense, should a beginner play that opening? The answers no. A world champion could play almost every popular openings really well due to time and effort he had put into. The same is not the case with the beginner. Following someone's example blindly could bring disaster.

In order to make your openings the best is simply to know more and more about your openings which in turn will bring lots of wins. The key to opening success is simply knowing better than your opponent. As the level of chess becomes higher, it is extremely difficult to win just out of the opening. It is the better player that wins a game not the one who knows a better openings. For this reason, it makes sense to study different phases of the game equally. My experience as a beginner brought forth an insight about my feelings at that time. As I was playing against old middle age man, I knew that he's the better player but I want to win. So, I trapped him in the opening using book moves and won quite a few brilliant games. In the long run, I run out of knowledge and eventually meet my inevitable disappointment. I learn my lesson.

So, what is the best openings? Your turn to tell me.