How to meet the English?

Haha, you beat me to the punch.

Its not easy, just ask the Scots, who live in the miserable north under constant tyranny of the English, to whom their great great grandfathers so easily succumbed.

lol.  Amazing how little British history is taught in English schools.  Nobody conquered the Scots.  Ever.  Not totally.  The romans?  Built a wall.  The vikings?  Mainly went further south for easier pickings and went to Scotland for relaxation.  The French?  Great allies of ours.  Truth is that Scotland and England did not unify until a SCOTTISH king James VI took over ruling ENGLAND and became James I of England.  Sold out by our own monarch, you could say.  I prefer to say we actually own England and will be coming to collect one day.

I prefer to say that 98.9% of all Scots now live in either London or Manchester, and can be found in most Wetherspoons from mid-day onwards telling anyone who'll listen how much better Scotland is than England.

Hey Rumplestiltskin34 Venereal..you can't fly the union flag and say that to a scotsman..tooo much island life. you look like you've escaped from the Gorbals anyway!

That was a cheeky edit

The Vikings didn't attack scotland because there were no rich places to attack.

Meeting the opening, I play e5 but I don't know much else.

They only attacked England because the pubs served such awful local beer and mead.  In Scotland they got to drink fine whiskey, which made the women look better and they also got to sit and tell an appreciative audience about all the pillaging they had done down south.

If I may offer a perspective from a 1700-1800 rated player as to why I favour the English opening when playing with white pieces ...

1. I invariably look to play English - it is virtually a no-brainer.

2. I usually use the excellent chess.com "Explore" facility to help decide how to respond after black responds (it also helps counter the disadvantage of my lack of knowledge of opening theory).

3. Often, if black wishes it, the game can transpose to one of the standard Queen Pawns openings, and where I fill I have some control still.

4. English has the effect sometimes of throwing my opponent off balance (as it is a move less played than e4, d4 say) thus giving me an advantage.

5. By focusing on c4 openings there is less for me to learn by way of opening theory - in other words I can focus my efforts around what happens after 1. c6.

6. It is within my comfort zone and I have had reasonable success playing it.

No problem...iam prepared...

2...Bf5 and i have the Baltic Defence, which i really enjoy :-)

If the Scotts took England with James I, then didn't the Germans take Britain with George I?

Maybe 1. c4 e6, using the French, but that didn't work too well for Napoléon.  If there was a German Defense, you could throw that at the Brits, but then they'll call in 10 more chess sets and call it the American Attack.  :-p

I find it hard to believe that he is really English with a name like Gawain Jones. He must be Welsh. Probably just doesn't want us nagging him to play for our rubbish team.

Ye GI was useless so Rob walpole had to step in. Sent him to Hanover to die.

Napoleon changed the rules to suit himself..

And the Americans only joined the gang when the Germans sank 10 or more ships with Americans on them.

Sounds like an American defense to me. Abit scared to play at first.

Ye look at Plenties name and look at mine... I guess you Must be Welsh then.

Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot the part where the Americans make all of your pieces for you during 39-45.  :-p

Thanks!!

We German dont need to attack the Tommys...we only must wait for the penalty shooting

Touche!  If only we could go back to September 1st 2001 Munich..