Myself I played various openings (poorly,lol) when I was learning but none really stuck with me. Then when I got older, I settled on the Sokolsky with white & played it exclusively for years (still poorly, but better). For a while I played the Modern exclusively with black, but to be honest the intricacies of the opening were mostly beyond my ability to handle at the time. When faced with trying to decide if I should find new openings for black or just immediately resign anytime I played black, I decided it was time to hang up the Modern for a while. Fortunately, I discovered the Guatemalan Defense while reading some Myers Opening Bulletins & fell in love with it! Can't claim to play it well, but oh my goodness, it's just so much fun!
Played it against pretty much everything. Still love both openings & they are always going to stay in my arsenal. Honestly, I've been away from chess for a few years now & could probably claim to be starting fresh once I knock the dust off. Decided to add a few new weapons to my list though so plan to start playing some new (for me, at least) stuff shortly. That's one thing I love about correspondence chess. It's easier to learn & use new things on the fly! Being able to study the opening as I'm playing it really helps it sink in for me. Will still probably take me a few years to learn & become somewhat proficient with the new things, but that's ok. The journey is the fun part! So how about you? Got a few you use exclusively? Switch it up every few years? Or are you a Jack of all Openings, so to speak? Myself, I know the first few moves of LOTS of openings...which would be just enough to know the name of what I was getting trounced in! lol
