Just getting back into chess again...

[nc-1701]

I played in a lot of chess tournaments when I was middle school age and had a USCF rating of around 1200 when I grew bored of chess and stopped. Now I'm 18 and at college where I started playing chess with a few friends of mine and I've started to regain an interest in playing chess. I've been playing a lot with Chesstiger (A chess engine for palm OS) and I recently found Chess.com's Facebook App and have been playing correspondence games. In doing this I've realized that their are huge amounts I have forgotten
So I have a few general questions that might help me get back into playing more again.

What is the bare minimum of openings I really need to know? I don't much care for learning lots of opening theory and studying time is after all best left for school, but openings are important. I've typically played Sicilian Dragon, Guccio Piano, and occasionally King's or Queen's gambit's. As a defense against Queen pawn openings I've looked at the King's Indian some, primarily because it looks similar to the Sicilian Dragon which I like. The biggest problem with those that I've noticed is Guccio Piano often leaves me in a fairly weak position, but I much prefer aggressive open games where I can launch major attacks and end games quickly, which most of the modern openings don't allow.

Are there any good chess sites for rapid time control games (5 minutes to an hour), I find correspondence chess quite tedious and would really like to play quicker games somewhere.

In particular what's a good counter to people who try to play the 4-move checkmate type opening against the Sicilian
e4 c5
Bc4 Nc6
Then Qf3 or Qh5 to which I typically respond Ne5 or g6 for a tempo, but g6 is typically followed by Qxc5 losing a pawn. I can typically do well from here, but I feel there should be a better response?

Thanks

 

[Tomoyo]

Well, after 1. e4 c5 2. Bc4 Nc6 3. Qf3, as you say, Ne5 looks good, followed by Nxc4. If Qh5, then e6 protects your pawn and the mate, but leads to a French-Sicilian type of position rather than a Dragon-type. If you really want to play with dragon pawn structure against Bc4 and Qh5, then I'd say play 1. e4 c5 2. Bc4 d6 3. Qh5 g6 4. Qf3 Nf6.

As for what kind of openings you need to know... I'm not really sure. There are lots of people out there who tell you that you don't need to know any until master level, but that's probably a big exaggeration. I'd say all you need is something you play as White, and prepared responses for all the likely responses (so, if you play 1. e4, know how to generally play against e5, c5, e6, c6, d5, etc.), one opening as Black against e4, and one opening as Black against d4.

Or you could just play the KIA as white all the time or something...

If you like aggressive open games, then the Evans Gambit is pretty much a sped up Giuoco Piano down a pawn, or you could look into the King's Gambit or Danish Gambit. Gambits are fun.

 

[DaveShack]

There is a live chess section on chess.com that lets you play time controls between game in 1 minute and game in 2 hours.

 

[Narz]

1. e4 c5
2. Bc4 e6!

Get some old school tactical puzzle books like Reinfield's 1001 mates or 1001 tactics & go thru them in your free time. I still enjoy such books & they definitely helped me a great deal as a 1200 player. I'm still working on this one, hopefully to get thru it eventually, perhaps in 2012 sometime.

 

[cdcuase]

I was told that beginners/low rated players need to develop tactical strength first before studying openings indepth. That is because lower rated players rarely ever follow book moves, and when your opponent strays from opening lines that you are familiar you are left to whatever tactical skills you have developed. Many low rated players win or lose games because of one or two blunders that cost as much as 3 pts.

 

[Narz]

This is true cdcuase. Tactics rule, especially at lower levels (and perhaps 90% of them go unseen).

 

[nc-1701]

You guys are definitely right about the tactics, I have been playing a lot of speed chess (anywhere from 1 to 10 minute games) on FICS and most of them have been won or lost tactically, or by straight blunders. However I still think that a good opening strategy is important to set the tone of the game later on. I've never spent a great deal of time going in depth in particular lines, but I find having an idea about where a particular opening is headed is still very helpful.

I have played around some with 2 ...e6 like you mentioned Narz and it has worked quite well, though I don't particularly like the pawn structure at that point.

 

[kroket]

Openings are as important as you want them to be... Generally i myself (elo 2118) find myself studying openings way too much... It's a well known pitfall for players to fall in to. This is because results are more easily visible... Below say 1700 most people virtually know nothing about openings. They for example always play the french but after say 6 or 7 moves they might just be out of book. More important then the actual variations in openings (another pitfall) there is to know the plans (=strategy) in openings (french revolves around control of the d4 square, in the kings-indian there is a closed pawn structure and black attacks on the kingside etc. etc.). What you also need to know are opening traps (most importantly to avoid falling into but also to trap somehow else every now and then this happens often at 1700- in my experience.).
Tactics and Strategy are of equal importance if you ask me. Tactics are more important for weaker players imo since most games are decided by a tactic (double attack!!). Learn about pins, discovered checks etc etc... Strategy is basically sound play, knowing where your pieces belong. Once you have put your pieces on the right places tactics often enter the position automatically.
Concerning an opening repertoire i'd advise something with simple plans rather then concrete variations lastig till move 34 (grunfeld-indian or sveshnikov anyone).
Some tips:
Nigel Davies has a nice chessbase dvd on opening repertoires for people with not enough time (dont have it myself though) http://www.newinchess.com/A_Busy_Person_s_Opening_System-p-2438.html
Buying fritz will help. Has a nice openingbook big database and access to playchess.com for 1 year here you can practice your openings and play games from 1 0 to 25 0 or even longer.
As tactics are concerned a well applauded dutch method is 'the stappenmethode'. This is for kids but it introduces tactics and gets more complicated every 'step' (there are 6 1-3 will probably too easy for u...).
Strategywise Herman Grooten's book of the year 'Chess Strategy for Club Players' is a real good one. Even i learned quite a bit from it while its probably meant for 1600-2000. Anyway this could help you get new insided about the game...
Finally concerning 2.Bc4?! in the Sicilian this is just a preposterous beginnermove. In e4-e5 systems (Italian) this is often interesting because of the weakness of the f7-pawn (well known line = e4e5 nf3nc6 bc4nf6 ng5d5 with sharp play). Sicilian is more about the d4square though. White wants to make a duo in the center (e4d4) black prevents this. So the logical move for white is 2.Nf3 (or 2.c3) to achieve this. 2.Bc4 is indeed met by 2...e6 cutting of the diagonal and preparing 3...d5 with a duo of his own for black. After 3.Nc3 you should go 3...a6 intenting 4...b5most weak player will not play 4.a4 and you get an extremely comfortable game with your bishop on b7. If they do go a4 just develop Nc6-Qc7-Nf6-Be7-d6-Bd7(b6-Bb7)0-0 in this basic scheme order depending on the opponent and black tends to be a bit better already...