Dear Aunty Chesspub,
The first e4 defence I "learned" as a teen was the Dragon. I knew little theory. When I got to a point of thinking I needed to learn some, I got a bit scared
Then I found this lovely defence called the Pirc, where I got a Dragon bishop, but without all this Sicilian theory
That was over thirty years ago, and despite the Pirc being my long standing friend against 1. e4, I now wonder if I'm just in denial about its soundness, and it is time to say farewell
I go back through my games, and my results against all levels of opposition really look bad now. Even lines where previously I had done quite well. I check the theory, but find difficulties playing the accurate abnormal moves required to survive some positions.
In contrast, I have been adding 1. ...e5 to my repertoire. My results with it have been excellent against non-Lopez lines and a good rating performance against the Lopez, from just a few months play, as compared to a few decades!
I was considering keeping both defences for variety, but am now thinking, should it be time to ditch my old friend completely?