My FAVORITE Chess Openings by Rating

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I get many questions about chess openings for beginners, intermediate, and advanced level players. In this video I share what openings I think work best across the rating ladder. London, Stonewall, Sicilian, Caro Kann, and many others are featured.

0:00 Intro
0:35 FOR BEGINNERS (LIKE 1100)
7:16 FOR INTERMEDIATE (LIKE 1800)
13:29 FOR ADVANCED (LIKE 1800+)

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500 Comments

  1. As usual… excellent video. I love your enthusiasm.

  2. Any opinion on the Pirc defense for black. I'm seeing that recommended for beginners, although some present it as about the same as the kings indian. I guess there is more than one flavor?

  3. Levy should do a tutorial on the bongcloud.

  4. I am happy that you mentioned the King’s Indian, that is pretty much the only thing I play with black because people always take out their queen early and I just don’t know what to do. I am planning on watching your how to stop early queen attacks video though.

  5. When I play the 1000 elo bot on a chess app I have, they always play the English, bring out their queen early, and destroy me

  6. Very helpful video for what to work on next for my openings.

  7. As a 1700ish player it's nice to see Levy recommend almost my exact repertoire for me going forward
    -English w/ alot of g3, Catalans & Botvinik setups
    -Taimanov sicilian
    -vs d4 the vienna or the nimzo
    cheers

  8. I’m up to 1400 after playing the vienna for the last few months, it’s been so fun to play.

  9. Please do a video on the MacLeod attack, and what you think of it, Gotham!

  10. ¿por que la descripción esta en español?

  11. 3:12 And maybe here you play c3
    Evan: cries
    Evan: cries again
    Evan: cries for a third time
    Evan: cries continuously
    Evan: cries for the rest of his life
    Evan: cries until and after he dies

  12. learning the English took me from 950 to 1150

    I like setting up fianchetto so it's perfect for me

  13. Beginners should prefer openings which are easy to memorize and understand. Four knights game has a simple structure and Caro-Kann Classical has a simple dynamic plan, i would reccomend both of them. Scandinavian is also suitable, but it is harder and more agressive, because it has many simple traps and potencial blunders to learn from.
    Intermediate players should learn systems including g6+d6 or e6+b6 (as black, and also their reversed variations for white). Queens Indian defence is safe and solid, Sicilian Dragon is risky, both of them suitable for this level.
    And advanced players can learn and play more difficult lines, such as QGD Noteboom variation (good statistics for black, but not that easy to understand and memorize.)

  14. i love your videos, i always watch them when im bored and i dont even learn anything i just watch the video

  15. STOP PLAYING SICCILIAN PLEASE THE REASON WHY IS BECAUSE e4/c5 nf3/g6 pd4/pc5xpd4 nxd4/bb7 and the move that destroys siccilian's goals is pc4 and its completely crushing for black because the goal of siccilian is to control the d5 square but you then have full control the other day

  16. I just watched this video, and them proceded to play the best blitz game of my life

  17. going to start learning the london system as a 400 elo player, problem is my opponents really dont castle that much so i dont know how to attack

  18. I've been wondering a lot about a double fianchetto as white with pawns on a4, d3, e3 and h4 and the knights on c3 and f3. I'm around 1100 btw

  19. Me playing stonewall defence against advanced players🗿

  20. Velociraptor variation what is this dinosaur stuff going on

  21. Idk if anyone's still watching this video(I can imagine that there will still be a few) but I've played about 300ish games with the London and I feel like I've got a road block. I still really enjoy playing it because I love the idea of having a solid structure before I go all in. But recently, I've been losing a lot of my games as white and when I look, my worst moves are within the first 7 moves. I feel like I know most of the main lines and I've managed to understand most of the traps that could happen against me whilst playing the London (mainly the forks) but I don't really know how to proceed with it any further? Are there any London-like systems that could help with this or are there any openings that have a better structure? (I'm around 400-500 rated and I'm not happy with the fact that I haven't managed to reach 600 yet after so many games. My endgame knowledge had gotten better along with the middle game too, but the stats show that apparently, my worst moves are during the opening)

  22. Me knowing how to play the trompowsky and sicilian at 300🫤🫤🫤

  23. Thank thank thank you 😉 I liked London system 😀

  24. Confusing how 1100 is considered “beginner” when it’s like an 80th percentile elo rating.

  25. king's indian for black…yeah… after 2 moves you've got about +1 for white. Idiotic opening

  26. why is it that every fuckking time you show the london system in every video you asume black will castle ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

  27. Dudeeeee I cant thank you more. I went from 500 to like 1400 just cuz of ur openings being so strategic and safe and started winning blitz games of 5 mins which for me was a huge achievement.

    So yeah anyone reading this, dude’s the goat of chess.

    Fyi i had to put in the work as well
    So ye not like out of thin air i just became better lmao.

  28. OMG! what is with that thumbnail?!
    Is he trying to come out of a piece of bedroom furniture?

  29. I'm 250, which opening should I use? Lol
    Edit: After trying out some of these openings, I am now 350. 👍

  30. Don’t know if you’ll see this but just wanted to thank you for everything you’ve taught me about chess especially the Vienna gambit, I’ve gone from a 400 beginner to a 1300 rated player since watching

  31. I need to practice some more of those beginning openings. I suppose I like the E4 E5 with black so maybe I will get a chance to play the Traxler or even a short variation of it. Even if I do not get a perfect Traxler, I don't mind sacrificing my bishop so that their king is hanging out there and then I castle and rub it in ha ha ha. I know people I play online also enjoy it when they get to ruin my castle opportunity.

  32. When i was becoming an intermediate level player in scholastic tournaments I learned the caro kann and literally made a (i think suboptimal) Vienna from scratch. So my chess journey ultimately included your two favorite openings for this by complete chance.

  33. Here I am thinking the London was good enough to take part in my first tournament 🏟 this coming weekend, wtf are all these other openings and mine is classed novice

  34. You cant play kings Indian against the london. The london shits all over the kings indian lol

  35. He forgot my favorite opening, the pirc defense

  36. For Beginners (00-1100) :
    =====================
    With White :
    1 – the London system 00:58
    2- the stone wall 01:58
    3- kings pawn opening ( Italian + fried liver ) 02:38

    With black :
    1- kings Indian setup 04:34
    2- the Scandinavian defence 5:36
    3- the Sicilian defence dragon variation 6:37
    (P.s: i think pric defence is good too)

    For intermediate ( 1200-1800)
    =========================
    With white :
    1.Danish gambit 
    2.Kings gambit
    3.The Vienna 8:11
    4.Closed Sicilian 8:50 ( play against Sicilian )
    5.The smith Morra gambit ( play against Sicilian ) 9:23
    6.The wing gambit 9:30
    7.Two knights (against the French)
    8.advance caro kann 10:19

    With black :
    1- Caro kann ( against e4) 10:30
    2-The Dutch defence  ( against d4 or c4 or nf3) 11:18
    3-The traxler 12:28
    4-stanford gamebit 13:14

    For advanced level (1800+)
    ===========================
    With white :
    1. trompowsky 14:15
    2. the catalan 15:00
    3- the english 15:22

    With black :
    1. Caro kann 16:15
    2- ruy lopez bird's defence 16:42
    3- Sicilian Defense: Nimzowitsch Variation17:24
    4- Van Geet Opening: Sicilian Two Knights Variation 17:35
    5-  pin variation sicilian
    6-e6 b6 setup 18:08

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