Very nice opening that is used by many grandmasters.It has a slow game and its tough to break it.

reverse sicilian!

he moved his bishop's pawn up two

This is good if you prefer a slow build-up. It usually transposes to several of those Indian Defences. On the contrary, it is not that vernomous

one very good chess player told me this move is good for center control

Perickson, I have heard of something called a hedgehog formation that has a queenside fianchetto with a c5 pawn, however I am not sure on the other particulars. I do know that Karpov used Nc3 to open with in order to avoid certain defenses to Queen's Gambit (particularly Greunfeld Defense) and sometimes Kasparov would turn to Catalan (1. d4 2. c4 3. g3) to avoid both the Nimzo-Indian Defense and B-a6 (instead of queenside fianchetto) in the Queen's Indian Defense. 

For everybody else out there, this is a good opening and if you don't believe me, check out how frequent this opening is used in master games.

I usually open with the English and have pretty good success with it. I also try to avoid letting it turn into a Queen's Gambit, as that is known by more players at my level (ie. not all that good). Are there any very experienced players out there that either hate this because they know of easy counters or love it because it's hard to counter?

the point is to challenge the center or the flank from a rare perspective while allowing the knight to come into play without blocking the pawn. I have an interesting game going right now against rixvil and i dont think anyone has tried what i am now. the b pawn is sacrificed.

it like playing silican diffrent colors with extra tempo.if black dont want to then hes or shes best other choise is to play 1...c5 and b6,e6,d6 nf6,be7 and 0-0

Can be developed into a Queen's Gambit.

I like it and it works for me

play the dutch against it and most players will freeze because of it its a good opening but against an open with the same idea of suceding the center to the oppenent its not so good

i hate this

 I often use this opening w/ good results.

Do people suggest this?!

this is my favorite openings. most of time I plaed.

i play the english quite often and i enjoy the success i have with it. its true that its like a reversed siclilian in the way that it challenges black to gambit for control of the center by battling a wing pawn against one of black's center pawns. throw in the fast developement of your pieces with an open file to stack your rooks and what's not to like or even love about the mighty english open!!!!!

great opening with the white. safer for the royals than the usually played d4.. e4.. and allowing a quick development and easy castle as well.

ok for this opening not bad

the stats for this arent so bad

It is, to put it mildly, PATHETIC!

your pathetic