Suggestion for Black Opening vs. 1.d4

Original Post by Philipp87

Hello community,

currently I am having some trouble with an opening against 1.d4 (and 1.c4 and 1.Nf3 of course too). I have issues to find a "good" opening against this - and with "good", I mean an opening which fits my style and is somewhat easy to learn.

I am a 100% 1.e4 player as White. Here I like the Ruy Lopez against 1.e4 e5 and against the Sicilian, I discovered the Rossolimo and Moscow Attack. These positions are really fun to play. As Black, I currently play the Petroff, but this is just a temporary thing to cut off all the other theory after 1.e4 e5. My goal is, to go play a Ruy Lopez / Italian game in the future.

With this background, I just have trouble to find an opening for Black vs. 1.d4. When I learn a new opening against 1.e4, the positions feel quite easy to understand. But when I try to learn something against 1.d4, I have huge problems to understand the resulting positions. It seems, like only half of the moves are logical to me and this makes it hard to learn. Can you give me some advice, which opening (maybe a course is available here on chessable) you would suggest? I tried to have a detailed look at the KID and the Accelerated Queens Indian Defense, but in both cases I had some problems to not challenge the centre. Also I tried the Slav and Semi-Slav, but also this doesn't feel comfortable to me. Maybe I should try the classical QGD? Which course do you suggest? Or something other like the Nimzo-Indian / Ragozin?

Glad to hear some of your thoughts : )

Best ChessAficionado's Reply

Your opening choices with White (Rossolimo and Moscow) and Black (Petroff) are really solid and rather calm openings. There are not so many forcing variations compared to some open sicilian mainline. So it might be good to find an opening, where you also develop your pieces in a natural way and still fight for the center.

Since you're already playing the Rossolimo, in my opinion the most practical choice for you would be to play the Nimzo:

  • Pawn Structure: If you play 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 e6 4.Bxc6 bxc6, you will notice that some variations of the Nimzo for example the Saemisch variation (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.a3 Bxc3+ 5.bxc3) or in some variations of the Rubinstein where black takes on c3 are really similar to the Rossolimo. You strive for the blockade of the doubled pawns with c4 (Rossolimo) or with c5 in case of the Nimzo, and then you proceed to attacking the weak c4/c5-pawn.

  • Sound Development: Like in the Rossolimo, you develop your knight, then your bishop and then you are ready to castle.

  • Clarity of Plans: In the Nimzo, the pawn structure determines what is possible in the position, what pawn breaks/weaknesses to go for.

  • Soundness: You fight for the center. Sometimes you put a pawn on d5 or e5 depending on the positions.

  • Great Games to Learn From: Learning the Nimzo gives you a bunch of interesting games to dissect from masters like Fischer, Karpov, Carlsen, and Kramnik.

There is that recently published course by Maaike Keetman that I really enjoyed for its explanations of the strategic/tactical ideas in the Nimzo.

Other Community Suggestions

  1. Thank you for your detailed comment. The Nimzo and QGD are the two openings that I prefer at the moment.

  2. I just had a short look into this repertoire and found the QGD to be a much easier opening to learn.

  3. The Dutch opening also fights for the center and could be an alternative.

  4. Colovic's courses provide complete repertoires against deviations from 1.d4, 1.c4, and 1.Nf3.

Conclusion

In summary, the Nimzo-Indian and QGD both stand out as solid openings for your chess improvement and understanding.