Playing a classic Queen’s pawn or King’s pawn opening is way too theory intensive. For each major opening you have to memorize multiple lines of theory to play at a semi-competent level, and playing chess very sporadically, I don’t relish the “relearning” process in order to start enjoying the game again.
I have resorted to diving hard into lines that have a very clear mainline / aren’t as popular on a fundamental level. These are some lines that can be forced into from the most popular openings and allow the learner to be more “studied” on the niche traps since they branch from openings where the opponent must study multiple lines. I pray that this knowledge advantage is enough to carry me; at least it makes Blitz easily accessible from a long break.
Whenever I play the Double King’s pawn game from white, my go-to is the King’s Gambit. Most e4 – e5 openings devolve into the classic development of the minor pieces in the center. Playing the King’s Gambit allows a very “narrow” branching opening where a slight mistake from the opponent will lead to an easy advantage.
I hate Queen’s Gambit players with a passion. The opening for white is so fundamentally sound and it definitely is tricky to maneuver around if you haven’t played for a while. What better way to play against it than with the fundamentally unsound Englund Gambit. This opening is a pure gimmick, with a very braindead trap that works well against low level players. If you study the theory heavily though, your opponent will have to play in a minefield for a series of moves to actually earn that material advantage. This opening works until a undeservingly high level too, I’ve sniped matches from 1500s in a few moves.
Unfortunately this is one of the sound openings I usually have to understand intensely to round out my game. Once the Sicilian is played, you are playing a Sicilian game. Sounds obvious but from the white side they have to study the Double Kings Pawn, the French, the Caro-Kann, etc, when they want to open with the King’s pawn. Once you force a Sicilian against lower level players, you should have a massive theory advantage over your opponent. It’s also good to know because if you play the King’s pawn opening from the white side, you may find the Sicilian forced upon you as well.
Summary
White side: King’s Pawn opening
-> King’s Gambit
-> Sicilian game
Black side: King’s Pawn opening
-> Sicilian defense
Black side: Queen’s Pawn opening
-> Englund Gambit
I’d guess around 85% of games I encounter in Blitz can be forced into one of these three lines. Keeping a basic knowledge of these few branches allows me to come back into chess and relearn the lines of my games relatively quickly and they have the added benefit of being extremely fun to play as well.