The Owen Defense Part 3

English Civil War

English Opening v English Defense 

    This line is rarely played since most people playing agains the Owen just take the center completely. Why not? This line occurs when white insits upon keeping to his opening repetoire and not playing d4. I actually have not played this in any of my chess games but keep it known just in case.

    There are many transpositional possibilities in this position. Generally, a true English v English game happens when there is an adamant English Opening player who will not venture into a different oppening.

    I have studied deeply on how to play against the English Opening. It has always annoyed me since I prefered games where both sides took risks to try to gain the advantage. An English Opening is solid. There aren't opening mistakes that can occur. I have never enjoyed playing against this opening for this reason. The only thing I could come up with was transposing to a slav with 1...c6 and 2...d5. However, I did not like that because I was not a slav player. So, I tried to come up with something more unique but not risky. This was before I became a b6 player.

    This was the first line I came up with. I had hopped that b6 would discourage g3 but that was superficial. After learning the Owen, I decided to prepare it against the English without playing c5.

    Another line if white is more aggresive could run.