[Knockwurst]

Picking opening systems should depend on the style you like to play. If you like tactics, open games -- e4 with white and various Sicilians against e4 and Gruenfeld against d4 as black. If you like closed positions c4 or d4 (which gives you more of a semi-open position)with white and Ruy Lopez, Pirc or Petrov against e4 and King's Indian (which can get highly tactical), Dutch or Slav (Botvinik variation can get very tactical too).

Picking a favorite player and going with his openings isn't too bad either. I started with Fischer's openings (e4 as white, Najdorf and King's Indian and Gruenfeld as black). Then I realized that these openings require a lot of memorization and time studying. I liked studying other aspects of the game (middle game and ending) and time constraints convinced me to switch to openings that didn't require as much work -- English as white and a Pirc-King's Indian system as black. So, a second consideration is how much time you want to spend studying the opening. Generally, the sharper the opening, the more time you have to spend on it -- e4 requires more study than d4, c4 or other irregular openings.

Finally, you want an opening that you can force your opponent into. It does no good spending all your time studying the King's Gambit if your opponent plays c5 in response to e4. Openings that early on in the game force play into those particular systems include as white the Trompowsky (sp?), English, b3 systems, and as black against e4 the Sicilian, Pirc, Alekhine's Opening, Petrov, Center-Counter and against d4 the Gruenfeld, King's Indian, Benko, Benoni and Slav.

There are also chess books that give you opening systems to cover most of what you can expect to play against as white and black. To find the better opening systems books look at the reviews on Chess Cafe's website (the twoplustwo website of chess). Also stay away from any chess books written by Raymond Keene. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]