I am probably not skilled enough for the Sicilian but I am opposed to E4 E5

@MisterKobe said in #6:

Play the Scandinavian , you have the positional and the gambit version.
@YAYERZ said in #11:
... I'm not saying the opening is bad or trying to be disrespectful, I am just stating that from my perspective, it never seemed to end up as anything impressive. I don't have a FIDE rating but I suppose it's around 800-900 range based on the games I played on Lichess and Chess.com
A comment about 1 e4 d5 2 exd5 Qxd5:
"... Theory has always been rather sceptical about the Scandinavian, but there have always been staunch supporters, great champions and exciting variations." - Fundamental Chess Openings by GM Paul van der Sterren (2009)

@YAYERZ said in #1:

Maybe I just haven't spent enough time with E5 but I find myself getting my pieces pinned, stumbling over each other and blundering the game away. ... At what point did you feel comfortable breaking away from the "usual" openings and exploring?
I looked at your

https://lichess.org/dIkK1jNs

4+0 game ([Date "2022.04.23"] [Black "YAYERZ"]), and, based on how it started (1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 c6 ...), there is room for you to beneficially learn more about 1 e4 e5.

@kindaspongey said in #22:

I looked at your lichess.org/dIkK1jNs
4+0 game ([Date "2022.04.23"] [Black "YAYERZ"]), and, based on how it started (1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 c6 ...), there is room for you to beneficially learn more about 1 e4 e5.
@kindaspongey said in #22:
I looked at your lichess.org/dIkK1jNs
4+0 game ([Date "2022.04.23"] [Black "YAYERZ"]), and, based on how it started (1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 c6 ...), there is room for you to beneficially learn more about 1 e4 e5.

!!! Brother of all the games I have lost you picked, the one where I embarrassingly lost to my junior coworker. Whyyyy

@YAYERZ Check out this video of Ben Finegold: https://lichess.org/forum/general-chess-discussion/how-to-avoid-this#2

Good luck on your lifelong chess journey (and don't blame your opening choice until you reach at least 1500 on lichess).

@YAYERZ said in #23:

!!! Brother of all the games I have lost you picked, the one where I embarrassingly lost to my junior coworker. Whyyyy
I just looked for a 1 e4 e5 game.

@YAYERZ said in #7:

I honestly didn't know that was considered to be a real opening. I recall seeing people play it at a low level, or at least some wandering queen version, and they seemed to fish for early mate and I was not impressed. I looked over a couple studies and I was pleasantly surprised how nice of a position you can have without the overly aggressive queen play.

Thats the old or Classic Scandinavian. Not as bad, but not really good.

The modern Scandinavian is the way to go.
It does have some traps in some variations, but we dont play for traps.

What it usually gives you is a dynamic game where you get some initiative, usually at the cost of a pawn, though in many variations you recover it quite fast and still have chances.

Just understand that e5 and c5 both have a high draw rate and about same winning chances for both sides.

Scandi has a lower draw rate, so its more of a win or lose situation. However, it is way more fun, as you do have a lot of attacking chances which is not necessarily true with the other 2. More often than not is a survival game.

I don't buy it, the stuff that gets posted around here about the suitability of the Sicilian for low level players.

You tell me, why do YOU say you are probably not skilled enough for the Sicilan.

@fzimmermanchess said in #27:

I don't buy it, the stuff that gets posted around here about the suitability of the Sicilian for low level players.

You tell me, why do YOU say you are probably not skilled enough for the Sicilan.
Its not clear to me where the pieces should go a lot of the times. I would prefer if I could get the dragon variation most games but if I can't I find the position to become incredibly cramped. Still, I prefer to play the Sicilian because it is somewhat mentally stimulating to try and figure it out between myself and an engine. I just wonder if there are some concepts about chess as a whole that I'm missing that prevent me from playing the Sicilian optimally and perhaps trying different openings will give me that experience. I played against the Sicilian yesterday and I had the same issue of not really knowing the attacking ideas. Strange

@YAYERZ Forget about openings and focus on piece co-ordination. If you like attacking Chess then play, tricky tactical stuff which confuses your opp...or if you are more defensive, let your opponent make the mistakes while you play solid moves

I play myself into 'Deep, dark forests' so I'm comfortable in any situation or material down.

@YAYERZ said in #28:

Its not clear to me where the pieces should go a lot of the times. I would prefer if I could get the dragon variation most games but if I can't I find the position to become incredibly cramped.
A frequent mistake is to think about Sicilian as one opening; IMHO this is about as correct as calling 1. e4 e5 an opening. There are quite a few variations of Sicilian (sometimes I rather talk about "Sicilians") and they often lead to very different positions which require very different approach. Thus you may be familiar with Dragon but when white opts for Alapin, Smith-Morra or some of the Closed variations, you need to play in a very different way.