English Opening + or - for white??? Please post opinions...1600+ only please

Ok so i've been working on this opening but i have a question about the move order

any helpful feedback would be much appreciated...I looked at kingside attack due to the weak h5-e8 and a2-g8 diagonals as well as an unattractive pawn push g4 which was ugly to see. i tried regular development with the spacial minus not liking the lack of mobility. If anyone sees something please tell me and if you don't...well please show me anyway so i can stop trying to walk through a wall. THANK you :D

I don't like the english opening. It often feels like the Sicilian for white, but as an offensive system instead of a reactive system which the sicilian is meant to be.

2.g3 is the recommended move order in Kosten's book on the opening.  There's nothing wrong with 2.g3

2...e4 by black is just bad though.  It wastes time in the opening and you have a target basically.

I dunno for sure, I'm no titled player or anything, but it seems like you can just play f3 and he will eventually be forced to capture after moves like Bg2 and if he goes all out with Qe7 then Qc2. You also have ideas of Nh3-f4-d5 or to pressure e4 you can play Nh3 to either f2 or g5.

You'll be ahead in development, have an extra center pawn, control of d5 meanwhile black's pawn on f5 presents his queen-bishop with problems to develop, the kingside is loose in general and it weakened the a2-g8 diagonal like you said.  White has a comfortable edge.

My computer says 4.d3 is the way to go instead, but after I play into the line about 10 moves it likes it just as well as the positions I get out of 4.f3 -- maybe a stronger play could talk about the differences (I like f3 though )

Actually, after looking again I do like the d3 move better.  One of the reasons is I like this structure for white

better than this structure.

Having the half open d (vs having an open f file) seems more active in general here.  But specifically it seems to make e4 easier to exploit when d5 is under more pressure (due to the half open file).  For example in the 2nd diagram black will probably get in c6 and d5 quite easily.

In playing f3 I was hoping to get ahead in development after forcing black to capture on f3, but it seems keeping e4 as a target makes more sense as the development advantage is small/fades away quickly.

Meanwhile even if black tries to "bail out" by capturing himself on d3 then white will have a very comfortable structure giving him d5 and f4 while black only has negatives (f5 pawn hinders bishop, king position loose, and no pawn breaks to play for really).

Looking it up, Kosten gives this structure (pictured below) as ideal for white in his book, so this analysis seems correct.

So to sum it up, e4 becomes a weakness for black and a target for white, or, if black captures it away, then white will have a position plus due to the pawns and minor pieces.

Depending on how black plays (if he plays d6 not c6) structurally speaking you could also try d4.  If exd3 en passant then it's like we've already discussed.  If he leaves it on d4 then you still have d5 and f4 to play with.  If c6 after d6 then d6 becomes a target (you'd have to have a strong girp on d5 in this case though, to prevent black from playing d5 I would think).

Just different ideas to play with.

Really unless black can play f4 with attacking ideas, then f5 is only hurting him in these kinds of positions.

 Insult was not my intent, it's a serious subject to me so i didn't want floods of posts both for and agains it. If I decide to use it in tournaments, I want to KNOW it is sound and not lose the hard way. I meant to deter noobs basically not ban the intermediate.

I'm sure about any chess engine will tell you d3 is good there.  Hopefully I gave you some ideas as to why you would want to play it or why f5 isn't so hot for black.

Also, 2...e4? creates a strong square for the Ng1, i.e. e3, Nge2, Nf4 or Ne4. Taking away both of those squares with g5 or c5 would overextend Black, as you were hoping to do.

In my opinion, 2.g3 is dubious, as it doesn't immediatly address the center.  2.Nc3 is much more popular and for good reason, as it challenges d5 and e4 right away.  It's too early to decide whether or not to fianchetto the light squared Bishop on move 2.

I play the English, but I quite often don't fianchetto the KB.  Often I get transpositons into a King's Indian or into a Sicilian Maroczy Bind.

If you play the English Opening, you shouldn't expect any kind of a huge theoretical advantage with White, though there are times when it's possible.  Rather, you should look for opportunity to guide the game into channels that suit your style.

The nice thing about the English Opening is that it often gets opponents out of book in a hurry. Almost all top players have used the English Opening at one time or another.

It's a mistake to rely on the chess.com database for move statistics.  If you want to play 2.g3 because it "scores better" be my guest.  I stand by my opinion.

2.g3 occurs over 10,000 times in my database and has been played by players such as Kasparov, Gelfand, Karpov, Ivanchuk, Polgar and Leko.

GM Kosten also recommends this move order in his book "The Dynamic English"

ok well here's the reason I hesitated for d3

What's white's follow up? xS  I kinda liked Bd2 challenging the bishop.