Thank you for your detailed responses

Trainers and GMs in general advice developing players to start out playing gambits/open games to develop fundamental skills and so on..

Based on that common advice and the recomendations you guys have given, I conclude that its probably best for me to:

- Ditch the Morra gambit since its commonly declained and the Open sicilians already give good attacking chances/instructive value.

- Ditch the BDG since its a dubious weapon and the main lines agains the Scandinavian already provide an active/ instructive kind of game.

- Keep the Monte Carlo for the time being as a training tool, but looking to replace it for a more challenging continuation in the not too distant future.

Regards

Eric, it is great advice, and you're not even the first person to have suggested it. Sometimes people just need to be ready to hear the advice.

My main problem with the repertoire is that it claims to be instructive and aggressive but in reality it avoids the critical continuations, giving Black relatively easy play in many cases. 

If you want a testing line against the Sicilian, you pretty much have to play one of the Open variations. There is plenty of room for imaginative play there without following known lines 20 moves deep. The Exchange French is really unambitious, as others have said. That is a really hard way to try to win points as white.

MarkG wrote on 06/18/13 at 21:26:27:


Agree, very sensible!

Agree that the OP should just play the Open Sicilian.  Some early f2-f4 lines might be recommended, a la Beating the Sicilian 3 some years ago.  

Against the French, why not some of the more aggressive but sound gambits?  For instance, there is the "universal Gambit," or "Korchnoi Gambit" I think it's called in the Tarrasch.  With 3.Nc3 you can play 3...Bb4 4.a3 Bxc3+ 5.bc de 6.Qg4 (more or less sound), and against 3...Nf6 4.Bg5 Be7 5.e5 Nfd7 6.h4.  The "Monte Carlo Exchange" is just nothing for White; at best, White gets a slightly inferior version of the Queen's Gambit Accepted with 3.e3 e5.  

Against the Caro I'd suggest the Advance with 4.Nc3 and throwing the Kingside pawns at Black's light-squared Bishop (see John Nunn's games, for instance).  Or perhaps the classical 3.Nc3 de 4.Nxe4 Bf5 5.Ng3 Bg6, and choose one of the lines that combine Bc4, N1e2-f4, and h2-h4.  Black is OK in those but he really needs to know exactly what to do or could end up dead in a dozen moves, and the various move orders make things somewhat tricky for the second player.  Even if Black plays everything correctly the game is just equal; White isn't down material or anything.

You know what I would recommend, really?  Pick the aggressive lines that were popular by top GMs 20 years ago.  The vast majority of the time those lines are still sound and they have excellent surprise value.  Top GMs moved on because they were well-investigated, but down below IM level these lines can score extremely well.  And you're still playing good chess!  Normally it's just "well-worked out chess," but the well-worked out part doesn't often trickle down to the amateur level.  How many amateurs have hundreds of back issues of Informator?  You aren't going to surprise anyone with the 150 Attack these days, for instance--I'd try something else.

See what everyone at your club plays, and then choose something else!  That's what I'd recommend.  But make sure they're sound lines with high pedigrees, whether or not they're popular any more.  I'm sure that the aggressive lines that Kasparov, Ivanchuk, Shirov, Anand, Gelfand, Short, Bareev, and Timman (some of the top-10 players in July of 1992, for instance), are not "unsound."  Moving a little further down the list, you could find what players like Knaak, Gurevich, Sokolov, Nunn, Vaganian, Epishin, Dreev, Piket, Ljubojevic, Portisch, Kengis, etc. were playing back then--all top 50 players in the world.  Those players were not playing junk; pick the aggressive lines from their games and bring them back into practice!

Here's a simple, aggressive line vs the Scandinavian.   

Nigel Short-Dede Lioe, Calvia Ol 2004

Seems to me the main lines against the Scandinavian are plenty active for White.

Also, I'd like to seriously suggest that playing normal Open Sicilians right from the start will be much more instructive than the Morra, especially since many opponents will decline.

I find it weird to meet the Scandinavian with the BDG. If you like the BDG, you should probably play 1.d4

If you want to play 1.e4 and are willing to play very actively and gambits, I'd advise to buy "Gambiteer I" by Nigel Davies. With his repertoire recommandations, you'll play agressive and tactical games. Up to 1800-1900 Elo, I'm also confident that you'll very often surprise and outplay most of your opponents. Above this Elo range, you'll probably want to refine your opening, but that's another topic!