Transposition from Sicilian to English opening?

I've been playing around with a lot of opening ideas recently, and I play quite a bit of open sicilians and grand prix attacks after 1.e4. However, I'm trying to take my repitiore in an educational direction. 

For a little while I'd like to transpose to an english opening to make my entire 1.e4 repitiore rather positional.

After 1.e4 ... c5 2. c4! 

Is this move order playable? I know Botvinnik would play this kind of opening from a different move order, but I want to try something fresh and positional for my sicilian repitiore

I mean without d4. It wouldn't be a maroczy bind without having traded black's c pawn for whites d pawn?

So you are not writing about the  Maroczy Bind vs. The Boleslavsky  Wall.

The idea of 1.e4 c5 2.c4 is dubious at best.

First off, by playing the Botvinnik setup via 1.c4 is NOT the same as doing it this way.  First off, move order.  Committing to the Botvinnik setup too soon allows Black to play a better version of the defense.

Secondly, even if Black cooperates and plays what would have been played via 1.c4 leading to this setup, the Botvinnik setup is ineffective and gets White ZILCH against the Symmetrical English (which is what you are attempting to transpose to).  The Botvinnik Setup is only effective in the 1...e5 English.

So long story short, it's 1.e4 c5 2.c4?! (Yes, Dubious - Not busted, but highly dubious!)

Basically if black keeps his pawn on e7 then white has slightly less active pieces in general and a hole on d4 with no counterpart on d5.  It's probably solid, but from a practical standpoint I'd agree with thrillerfan that it's dubious.  If only because fighting against =/+ for 30 moves is psychologically difficult.

I open with 1.c4 and I love the Botvinik. Have beaten players rated like 2100 with it.

Any opening can be good, if you know how to play it, and your opponent doesn't . But you still have to know it. No getting around that part, I'm afraid.

I realize that when I play 2.c4, the white advantage goes from about .33 to about .13

I just wondered if there was any kind of major downside or pitfalls to the move order?

Does anyone know or have many ideas? I don't really know much about the english.

Yup. the Berlin defense is a major loser according to the computer, but Carlsen does pretty well with it.

Interesting because I wondered the same thing a while ago and played a pile of games against computers and me (centaur). It turned out that white has given up control of d4 and black can be patient and play e6 and aim for control of d4, with the option of a timely d5. With good play by both sides, after a while I had black winning most games and the rest being drawn.

This is a long winded way of saying that this is not a way for white to play for a win.

Honestly, I'm comfortable with playing open sicilians or grand prix attacks, but I play what I want depending on what mood I am in. 

The stats on 1.e4 c5 2.c4!? are not bad per se, compared to other mainstream openings, and can be considered something to play if it strikes someone's fancy. I'm not sure I particularly like the chess.com videos on the english. Does anyone know a cheap resource that is available?

As someone who plays 1. c4, I'm curious why you would play 2. c4, I assume it's to throw a Sicilian player off his main lines? One of the strengths of the English is transposition... still working on my repertoire but I meet e5 and c5 with a reverse sicilian/symetrical english, and everything else with a QG transposition (the Qc2 Nimzo looks promising... and the Slav lines are a choir without d4, at least for me).

@yeres A key couple of points in these 2 games. Firstly, black developing the knight to f6 invites a strong kingside attack by white. In the other game, after playing the knight to e7, black could have played f5 around move 14 - this is an important idea in playing this type of setup as black to kill white's attacking chances and open lines for black's rooks. 

The system you are describing has been around since the 1950's.  It is callled the Simagin System after Russian GM Vladimir Simagin

http://www.chess.com/coach/gabriel-alejandro

If your interested please send me an email at theactiveknight@gmail.com

The Simagin System requires ...Nh6.  The move ...Ne7 blocks Black's half-open e-file which in conjunction with the liberating pawn break ...f5 allows Black to thwart White's K-side flank attack by counterattacking in the center.  Counterattacking in an open center is well known to kill almost any flank attack

I had success with this system. Many times it came as a surprise to my opponents and they were unfamiliar with it. I myself like it.