By the Whale Variation, you mean 1.e4 e5 2.c4? Absolutely! 2.c4 serves no purpose, and all it does is weaken d4. Too early for a d5-clamp. 2.Bc4 and 2.Nc3 also do that.
Now you might be asking "but what about the Botvinnik Variation of the English Opening? Big difference. First, like the London or Colle, amateurs think it can be played systematically and they fail too! It is only good when Black has played e5, not c5, and fianchettoed his Bishop. Like 1.c4 e5 2.g3 Nc6 3.Nc3 g6 4.Bg2 Bg7, only now 5.e4! See the difference? If Black had played 1...c5 instead of 1...e5, all other moves the same, 5.e4 would be dubious, and if 3...Bc5 instead of 3...g6, with say, 4.Bg2 d6, then 5.e4 is just outright bad!
So yes, time to get rid of 2.c4.
Hi I'm currently in between 1000 and 1100 and am trying to get past 1100 but I feel like it might be my opening that lets me down the most, I don't see many other people play with this opening and was wondering if it was perhaps a bad opening to continue with and whether I should change to something else, It would be good to get some thoughts on the matter, thanks.