c4 as white: genius or mistake

Total rot. c4 has plenty going for it. Particularly the choice of transpositions.

RESULT:

d4 is dull and e4 has been refuted by the French.

The French is weak. If you want a better attempt, try 1...c5.

Nah c5 is a forced loss, but fortunately no one plays well enough to prove it. Ok,maybe Kramnik.

Kramnik can't refute the Sicilian.

  I used to play nothing but the Sicilian though I never studied any books on it.  In theory the English Opening could be considered a Sicilian "with a move in hand" but that's very naive since Black doesn't respond with 1. ... e5 a very high percentage of the time.  My limited experience with Black vs c4. transposes to a Queen's Gambit Declined or some 1. d4 nf6 opening an awfully high pct. of time . . . but there's still a lot of other possibilities out there (and most of them are transpositional also). There are 20 possible black moves in response to 1. c4 and at least 15 of them make some sort of sense . . . so often, in fact very, very often after, say, move 7 or 8 you are transposed to something other than a straight English (if that phrase indeed means anything).  Because of this, I believe the English is tailor-made for very experienced, very opening-minded (vs. tactical; vs. endgame minded) players only.  By the way, I went to this site's Game Explorer and they gave 19 answers to 1. c4 there . . . see what I mean?

Huh?  I'm about as non-opening-minded as they come (also very tactical and very endgame-minded) and I have always played 1 c4.

Yeah, Id say A1Rajjpuut characterized it exactly opposite of what it is heh.

He's convinced!

its ok move