Opening to take 1.d4 players out of their comfort zone

@Fflow said in #1:
> I recently studied the Caro-Kann opening

Caro-Kann is all pawns and no hope, if you’re white if you want to throw d5 off balance, play the Amazon attack, Qa5?.

Instead of taking your opponent out of their comfort zone, it might be worth doing some exploration to find your own comfort zone. Try the Queen's Gambit Declined for a few weeks, and if you don't like it try the Slav for a few weeks, and then try the Queen's Gambit Accepted, and the King's Indian, and the Dutch, and so on until you find positions that you like. When you're looking for an opening that suits you, nothing beats trial and error. You don't know how you'll feel about a type of position until you've experienced it

Benko

@Fflow said in #1:
> I recently studied the Caro-Kann opening, and I really like it because it plays out very different from the italian or spanish, and doesn't really leave any choice to the 1.e4 player and brings him out of his comfort zone and straight into yours.
> And it's a generally strong opening
>
> I'm looking for an opening with the same characteristics, but in answer to 1.d4
> Could the king's indian do the trick? Is it far enough from the queen's pawn game and the queen's gambit?
> Any other opening to suggest?
1.d4 2.d5 3.c4 4.c6 (slav) if
1.d4 2.d5 3.Nf3/Bf4 4.c5

@Fflow said in #1:
> I recently studied the Caro-Kann opening, and I really like it because it plays out very different from the italian or spanish, and doesn't really leave any choice to the 1.e4 player and brings him out of his comfort zone and straight into yours.
> And it's a generally strong opening
>
> I'm looking for an opening with the same characteristics, but in answer to 1.d4
> Could the king's indian do the trick? Is it far enough from the queen's pawn game and the queen's gambit?
> Any other opening to suggest?

As a d4 player, I can tell you that KID isn't going to ever surprise your opponent. It's pretty common seen and most d4 players will play against it regularly.

Assuming you want something solid and not a gambit line, probably Queen's Indian or Benoni are decent bets for solid but a little off-beat openings. FWIW, I would say the openings against d4 I don't like to face as White are Budapest Gambit and the Albin Countergambit.

@Fflow said in #1:
> I recently studied the Caro-Kann opening

It's always the same. 1200 player which blundering pieces on every move studying openings...

@TheCheesemate said in #12:
> Instead of taking your opponent out of their comfort zone, it might be worth doing some exploration to find your own comfort zone. Try the Queen's Gambit Declined for a few weeks, and if you don't like it try the Slav for a few weeks, and then try the Queen's Gambit Accepted, and the King's Indian, and the Dutch, and so on until you find positions that you like. When you're looking for an opening that suits you, nothing beats trial and error. You don't know how you'll feel about a type of position until you've experienced it
True, I'm learning both lines of the queen's gambit as white
Problem is that it's not really an answer to 1. d4 d5 2. nf3
I've heard the Slav mentioned a few times, so I'll look into it

And is the modern defense worth considering?

@PathOfNerd said in #16:
> It's always the same. 1200 player which blundering pieces on every move studying openings...

I think the "time honored approach" to leave openings until you are sufficiently skilled in middle game and endgame is dated.
The likes of Chessable mean you can now digest and regurgitate a complete repitoire of your favorite opening 15 moves deep across 10 of the most popular variations with maybe 1 weeks work on that opening.
Very little in the terms of work for the student with a huge gain both immediate and in the future..
You can rack up some quick wins with a huge advantage out of the opening if your opponent mishandles the opening, remember you will still be playing players at your level so a great chance this will happen. Also the knowledge doesn't evaporate when you gain a greater understanding of chess, it very well may be the case that as you progress you stick with the same opening and just get better at converting any opening advantage or playing the middle game better.

I think the days of advising beginners to steer clear of openings are dead and buried. Any trainer worth his salt coaching new players will also be doing some repitoire work with them. The resulting games provide further learning material which helps with the middle game study etc etc.. A fast track feedback loop.

I say to the Op, rock on with your opening prep, just don't neglect the middle games that arise from that prep work!!

@userfriendly2 said in #18:
> I say to the Op, rock on with your opening prep, just don't neglect the middle games that arise from that prep work!!

Thanks!
yeah, that's still where I make the most mistakes. But knowing a pawn structure and ideal pieces devlopment that goes with it helps a lot for the midgame

d4 c6 is quite annoying for me, how to punish it?