Stop Playing Boring Openings

By Owen Isenhart on 7/7/2025

1. e4 e5 is for Losers!

Just kidding (kinda), but the standard e4 e5 openings lead to repetitive, boring, theory-heavy games that often times heavily favor the white pieces. If you’re playing chess for fun (which is 99.999% of people), you shouldn’t be trying to copy what the GMs do.

Yes, it IS Optimal

(If you’re playing black and under 2000 elo, that is). Playing black puts you at a disadvantage from the jump, with white generally having a ~10% increased win rate. So, why further increase your disadvantage by playing exactly how white wants and expects you to? On your first move as black, you have the chance to dictate how the rest of the game will unfold. I personally like g6, the modern defense (specifically the modern tiger), but there are so many opportunities at your disposal besides e5.

What About the White Pieces?

Personally, I always start with e4 and PRAY that my opponent responds with e5. Why is that? For the exact reasons I’ve described, I get to dictate exactly how the game will be played, I get to take the opening down specific lines of theory that there’s a good chance my opponent doesn’t know, and I get easy games. Openings like the Scotch and Giuoco Piano are exciting (for white), full of traps for black to fall into, and easy to set up.

Conclusion

I really just hate to see people try out chess and then say, “This is boring.” Yea, maybe because you played the most boring and uninteresting openings, which led to you playing the same game 100 times. Switch it up! Unless you’re some kind of prodigy who plans to make a career out of chess, who cares about playing textbook-perfect openings? You should play because it’s fun, and I promise once you start having fun in your games, you will wildly improve.