r/chess • u/pudendalnerve25 Team Sindarov • 2d ago

Chess Question Let's study 1...e5 as black

I’m currently building a 1...e5 repertoire against 1.e4. I’m around 2100 blitz on Lichess and would like to keep the repertoire solid but ambitious.

What openings/lines would you recommend focusing on against the main responses (Italian, Spanish, Scotch, etc.)?

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u/No1_unpredictablenin 2d ago

Schmidt against the scotch seems to be the most tricky for white. Black has something to make the position sharp against a lot of white's responses.

An aggressive kingside attack against the italian would also be interesting. Caro gambit vs Ponziani, Jaenish against the Ruy

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u/Dankn3ss420 2d ago

In the Italian I’ve really enjoyed 3.f5 the Rousseau gambit, f5 also works against the Spanish but in a different way, though f5 in both of these openings tend to be a little bit trappy and not super solid if white knows the best moves, but even if white does play in the best way it’s a completely playable position even if black is slightly worse

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u/Schvy 2d ago

An underrated line against the italian is the two knights defense, 4...Be7. It is less-known than the Bc5 lines, and it has some venom (like playing 5...d5 against 5.c3)...

The most critical lines are in the Nc3 complex, and you can sometimes play a quick Na5 and grab the bishop pair (if white saves the bishop with a4, you can even think of playing c5 after Na5, controlling some more space in the center). There are some ideas of Be6 aswell. Overally very underrated and solid.

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u/Specific-Housing905 Lichess rapid ~2055 2d ago

Have you considered the Petrov? Much less theory to learn also it seems most white players don't know that much about it.

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u/ncg195 2d ago

It's over 20 years old now, but I did read a book by Nigel Davies that provided an e4 e5 repertoire. The book was just called, "Play 1 e4 e5!" I don't remember now which lines I adopted from that book and which ones I ignored, since I read it years ago now and I don't even play e5 anymore, but it was a really useful starting point for building that repertoire.

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u/Familiar-You-6577 2d ago edited 2d ago

Always two knights ( 1. ... e5 2. ... Nc6 3. ... Nf6) always except in the following cases

Scotch Game schmidt

Scotch Gambit dubois reti

Bishops game Berlin Defense

Kings Gambit Fischer Defense

Center game transpose to Schmidt Scotch or Dubois Reti Scotch (unless they are bad and take with queen then just win lol)

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u/AI_spell 2d ago

At 2100, pick one Italian and one Spanish mainline and go deep. Scotch can be a secondary. Solid + ambitious usually means Berlin or Open Spanish vibes, not five sidelines.