Sicilian or caro kann

Players will make mistakes at all levels. Especially in faster time controls. In fact, at GM level, everybody has studied all effective openings to perfection to the point the game starts to become about having various pet lines where they play slightly suboptimal moves to catch their opponents off guard.

Caro kann is easier to execute and I expect that everybody knows it by heart past a certain rating but I think regardless of a player's opening preference, it's safe to say that it all comes down to the player's ability to make effective attacks and play rock solid chess at the same time.

Caro-Kann all the way

Siccilian. If you look at win rates of 1600+ rated players siccilian has higher win rate than caro-kann

& I’m more familiar with siccilian

When I’m playing white, I find it very easy to get a position I’m comfortable with against the Caro-kann whereas against the siccilian it’s more challenging. So it’s easier for me to play & harder for me to play against

Sicilian is probably the best defense in all of chess when you really get down to it. Forget about the CK - nothing beats the sicilian.

- black chooses the main line and has like 13 options

- despite being so commonly played people usually don't know even the theoretical lines just due to the sheer size / variety of what white faces in the open sicilian. something which distinguishes it from most other e4 openings

- it's positional so you can respond to moves on principle, yet it's still full of tactical opportunities underlying the positions which you will come to recognize

- the anti-sicilians are generally easy to deal with, and this is what most white players play due to the vast amount of theory required to play the open lines

- the theoretical burden on white is greater than the one on black since black chooses the main line

- black doesn't even have to play theoretical lines due to having so many options ...

- even in the anti-sicilians there are rare counters that will confuse white

- it's honestly not that hard to play

- if they play an anti-sicilian your king is safer than in any e4/e5 opening, and depending on the mainline variation you choose your king usually remains safe

These are all valid points but this is with the assumption that black is knowledgeable with Sicilian opening theory. Just out of curiosity, when did you learn the sicilian?

As much as I want to incorporate this in my opening repertoire, I do feel that currently, my growth would be better with sticking to simple but solid openings so that I could focus on improving my fundamentals like Caro-kann and KID.

Then, when I get to 1500, I could probably say that my fundamentals are solid. I'm less prone to blundering pieces, less susceptible to tactics, better at converting winning positions, sharper in spotting checkmates. That's probably the time that I'll study up on more complicated openings such as Ruy Lopez, Sicilian, Grunfeld, etc.

I think you're overestimating / slightly misunderstanding what obstacles you may face in playing the sicilian. Again, some sicilians are theoretical while others are completely outside of theory until like 2200ish. Complexity isn't really the issue either, every opening is complicated if you don't know it... but openings have different traits and different types of complexity. Some openings are positional, others are tactical... some have a broad move tree, others are forcing and sharp... some are theoretical, others offbeat... some trade down quickly, others retain tension... some have entire board tension, some have a more hypermodern tone to them while others take up space... those are the sort of things you have to consider. There's a sicilian that meets pretty much every one of these descriptions, again there are like 13-15 viable ones you can play... If you want to avoid theory... play a french sicilian. If you want to avoid anti-sicilians.... you can do that via the hyperaccelerated dragon or the nimzowitsch sicilian. If you want something easy... play the four knights. CK is probably better up til 1500ish simply because people usually won't have much prepared against it. But if they do know the lines... the CK certainly isn't easy mode - the king can come under alot of pressure. On the other hand, people will usually have an anti-sicilian prepared at this level, and it takes some time to learn how to deal with anti-sicilians. But I think it's better to get started early than wait, and it certainly is not prohibitive for black to play the sicilian at 1300 elo, or even at 600 elo - the winrates are fine for black, infact I think it's the 2nd highest scoring defense against e4 behind the CK at this level. But learning an opening like the sicilian is a long term commitment so I wouldn't base my decision on a 1-2% difference in the winrate at 1300 elo. If your long term goal is to play the sicilian... the earlier you start the easier it will be to do that. That's my opinion and how I'd approach it, but of course feel free to do what you like, there are benefits to exploration as well.

Thanks guys @everyone

I used to play the caro-kann, switched to the sicilian, and my record improved drastically.

I used to play the Sicilian, switched to the French Defense, and my record improved drastically. Similar theme. More aggressive defenses not only tend to score better against 1. e4 in general, but they force those who use them to learn to play both more aggressively and more precisely.

Too many inexperienced players use the C-K like a security blanket (playing passively and hoping for an opponent's mistake), not realizing that against any decent player, black must soon strike back at white's center to have any chance at all. In the French Defense, black strikes back at white's center immediately.

This is very insightful. Thanks! I'll consider adding it to my repertoire sooner than later.

Well, both the French and the Caro-Kann lash out at White's e4 square on move 2, with the d5 pawn.

They just use a different supporting pawn.

Interesting how something as minor as a different supporting pawn can change the nature of the game so drastically ...

Really appreciate guys

I played the Sicilian as a beginner and I am glad that I did.

one advantage of the Sicilian is that, across many variations, Black’s development and queenside counterplay is the same.

Another advantage is the the Sicilian is more active than the CK. Tactics are often easier for beginners to learn than positional play.

sure, there are many book traps and tactical lines in the Sicilian. A beginner will be crushed many times. But that is how one learns. And a beginner is just as likely to lose in a CK. I would rather have my students play actively.

I see. I'm getting 50 50 on whether I should start taking it up. I'll probably do it this way. After I reach 1500, I'll start playing with it more in my lichess account as I see that account as a study account. I care less about my rating there. Once I build enough confidence, I'll start using it in my games here.

I do see the viability in taking up the Sicilian early. However, I think it's also worth putting in time to fully master the openings that I currently have in my repertoire. Scotch, London, Caro-kann, KID. I would also say that I find merit in improving my positional chess with Caro-kann and KID as my scotch games with white tend to be very tactical and offensive in nature. So yeah. Thanks everyone! This thread was insightful.

Thanks guys really appreciate your advice

You really shouldn't strive to "fully master" an opening until you're 1800 at least, tbh. Usually I encourage exploration up until that point. Because if you don't really know the options available and which you prefer... all the time poured into mastering an opening will probably be wasted time later when you decide to change. It takes quite a long time to master an opening. Of course... in the case of the sicilian I will always recommend it just because I believe it's the best defense in chess and it's what I ultimately settled on after having played all the main moves. But even if you were to play the sicilian... I still would not recommend trying to "master it" until you were at least 1800. Because you still have to choose which sicilian, again you have many options... and you're gonna have to experiment before you know which one you want to master. Even against the anti-sicilians you typically have many different ways you can respond. So really you should be more in an experimentation mindset for quite a while. The fact you already play the CK, assuming you kind of know the first 6 moves... to me that alone would suggest you should try something else now if that's what you intend to do eventually.

Honestly every good player probably has played the 4 main defenses at least a little bit... just to know the very basic ideas. french, CK, e4/e5, sicilian. 
It doesn't really take that long to work out the first ~6-8 moves or so in an opening... like a few hours max. And at that point it's playable.

The other thing is... you may narrow down a few different openings you like based on research / asking for advice, but until you play the different lines you often can't ever know which you prefer. Like I couldn't decide between the QGA and slav for quite a long time, I knew both lines out to move 8 or so... but in the end, after playing both for quite a while, I finally decided which one I wanted to really buckle down and master based on how I enjoyed the line / felt playing it... which is not something you could ever figure out beforehand.