It's funny that when we lose, it's the opening that we chose that cost us the loss. When we win, we give credit to great tactical combinations and superior strategies. The answer depends on you. If you like open positions, closed or semi closed. I play fianchetto positions and what I hate most is an agressive a or h pawn attackon the flanks. It's annoying and complicated.
What is the best defense for the english opening.
Sort:
Against 1. c4 I like to play f5. White is almost compelled at some point to play d4 and then we are in my Leningrad Dutch Defense; thus I have dictated the opening, not White. If he holds back the Q pawn, then I am playing the same formation with more advantage; I just out-hypermodern him.
May 13, 2009
0
#24
Ricardo_Morro wrote:
Against 1. c4 I like to play f5. White is almost compelled at some point to play d4 and then we are in my Leningrad Dutch Defense; thus I have dictated the opening, not White. If he holds back the Q pawn, then I am playing the same formation with more advantage; I just out-hypermodern him.
Yes, if you play the Dutch you can play it just as easily against the English. White very often plays d4 and then you are calling the shots.
jonnyjupiter wrote:
Ricardo_Morro wrote:
Against 1. c4 I like to play f5. White is almost compelled at some point to play d4 and then we are in my Leningrad Dutch Defense; thus I have dictated the opening, not White. If he holds back the Q pawn, then I am playing the same formation with more advantage; I just out-hypermodern him.
Yes, if you play the Dutch you can play it just as easily against the English. White very often plays d4 and then you are calling the shots.
Unless that player is also a 1.d4 player, and doesn't think much of the Leningrad Dutch. Otherwise, white isn't really "compelled" to play d4: Tony Kosten does a whole chapter on this in his book on the English.
Dec 16, 2009
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#26
rednblack wrote:
jonnyjupiter wrote:
Ricardo_Morro wrote:
Against 1. c4 I like to play f5. White is almost compelled at some point to play d4 and then we are in my Leningrad Dutch Defense; thus I have dictated the opening, not White. If he holds back the Q pawn, then I am playing the same formation with more advantage; I just out-hypermodern him.
Yes, if you play the Dutch you can play it just as easily against the English. White very often plays d4 and then you are calling the shots.
Unless that player is also a 1.d4 player, and doesn't think much of the Leningrad Dutch. Otherwise, white isn't really "compelled" to play d4: Tony Kosten does a whole chapter on this in his book on the English.
He's not "compelled" to play it, but I think it is a stronger position than playing d3, as Tony Kosten's book suggests. He says you should aim for d3 and e4 to go for a Botvinnik-style position, which is fair enough, but in game play this hasn't worked out as well for me as simply transposing into a straight d4 Dutch game. Anyway, 9 pages of Kosten's book is unlikely to cover enough ground to cope against the 2 or 3 books the Leningrad lover will have at his disposal.
It doesn't amtter if white doesn't think much of the Leningrad Dutch - the point is that if he responds to f5 with d4 then black can go for that system if he knows it and perhaps takes white out of his comfort zone, thus black is calling the shots. Psychologically this is an issue. For a long time I avoided playing d4 in the English because of the inevitable transposition into a queen pawn opening - I often played inferior moves because I wanted to stay in an English setup. Having now learned the Catalan (and a passing familiarity with a few other d4 openings), I am happy to transpose if I feel the d4 position is stronger.
I played c4 exclusively back when I was an active OTB player. The counters I had the most trouble with were the Dutch and the symmetrical English. I had no trouble with e5 since I saw it all the time.
I know the english symmetrical looks like it does not belong on the list... but I saw it so rarely that I had little experience with it.
Considering the popularity of the KID you would think I would have seen it all the time, yet rarely did anyone transpose to it and since I am a KID player my self I could hold on to a fair game.
Ricardo_Morro wrote:
Against 1. c4 I like to play f5. White is almost compelled at some point to play d4 and then we are in my Leningrad Dutch Defense; thus I have dictated the opening, not White. If he holds back the Q pawn, then I am playing the same formation with more advantage; I just out-hypermodern him.
transposing to Anglo-Dutch is good!
Furthermore, if you're an avid Dutch Defence fan, you have avoided this anti-dutch move
Right now, I'm still wotking on my Dutch Stonewall, so my treatment for 1.c4 is 1...c6! transposing it to Slav Defence right away. Of course, my opponent may move 2. e4, transposing it to a Caro-Kann Panov Botvinnik Attack, which happened to be my second favorite defence against e4!
In the 1980s I studied with IGM Sammy Reshevsky. He was U.S. Champ several times and has beaten many top players including Bobby Fischer. One of the games we studied was 1. P-QB4, and his response 1....N-KB3. (Back then Alg. Notation was not used like it is now.) Hort - White / Reshevsky - Black, here are the first few moves:
Well, at least now we've learned who Reshevsky was.
Play a reversed grand Prix attack
ok but i think e5 is better
Jul 3, 2015
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#35
I'm not sure how good or bad this is, but I usually play Nf6 and if they don't play d4 next then I will immediately push d5.
Jul 3, 2015
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#36
I am not sure the Stonewall is such a good idea against the English.White has not committed himself with d4 and therefore the pawn could go to d3 which could be advantageous to white.In my opinion the English is one of the very best openings ,extemely elastic and rich in ideas.Perhaps a good solid reply would be ..1e5 but I am no opening expert so ..1c5 might be equally good.The Dutch though,I'm not too sure it works so well against the English.Naturally,the various transpositional possibilities abound.
Jul 3, 2015
0
#38
(p. 171)
English Opening:
1 c4
The English is in many respects
similar to Reti's. Both are open-
ings which derive their strength
largely from transposition possi-
bilities. Both involve complicated
positional motifs where know-
ledge and good judgement are
equally essential. Both appeal to
players who like to leave the
(p. 172)
beaten track.
From a theoretical point of
view, it is quite easy to see what
the analogy is due to. In both,
White does not occupy the centre,
but hits at it from the side. Conse-
quently Black will place his pawns
in the centre, which will, in many
cases, lead to familiar openings
with colours reversed.
The English may lead into a
number of familiar openings
directly, as, e.g., with 1 c4 Nf6 2
d4; here we shall only consider
those lines which distinctively
belong to this opening.
As in Reti's opening, the natural
reply for Black is to place a pawn
in the centre with 1 ... e5. Then
we have a Sicilian Defence with
colours reversed and with a move
in hand. This extra move creates
three important differences from
the regular Sicilian. The first is
that while ... d4 is normally a
great problem there, here it can be
played whenever White wishes to do
so. The second is the significant
feature that White can build up
his counterplay on the QB file
more quickly in the present case.
The third is that ... d5 by Black
(analogue of the strongest for
White) is by no means simple.
These three differences, in addition
to the normal characteristics of
the Sicilian, determine the further
course of play.
Fine, Reuben. 1989. The Ideas Behind the Chess Openings, Algebraic Edition. New York: Random House, Inc.
White is not compelled to play d4 after the opening moves 1. c4 f5
Here is a game showing a theme not playing d4
David Taylor Thomas A Crispin
I like that ! Nice idea.