Why do people say the English Opening is bad?

I admit, I am bad at it but I'm doing my best to improve. Self-awareness is something not all of us have, and some of your words have made me self aware. This was a misunderstanding, and after all I appreciate what you said @pfren. 

you all will be seeing more e4 games from me lol

Your current priority shouldn't be playing 1.e4 instead of 1.c4, but rather playing more slowly/ carefully. Almost all the games you have played here are full of (mutual) blunders.

Well, by "beginner" I mean in terms of relative strength, as opposed to time played.

Again, 1.c4 is fine, but it's more of a positional opening. The ideas in it are more abstract, and less concrete.

In some lines, for example, white "undevelops" his f3 knight and redirects it to c2. In others, white gives himself a backward pawn in the center and prepares a pawn advance on the queenside with the support of his queen rook ... These ideas (and others) are generally considered too advanced for beginners to grasp and handle properly.

With 1.e4, the strategies tend to be more direct and principled - easier to understand and easier to learn from.

I'd argue that playing 1.e4, at your level, will definitely make you a stronger player in the long run.

alright then thanks for the advice!

yeah I'm learning on developing pieces and e4 definitely helps not gonna lie. But thanks for the tip

Why do people say the English Opening is bad?>>

Presumably because they're weak players.

Well if you used that acronym "O.N.L.I.N.E", could you at least tell us what it stands for?

if you have the brain capacity, that is.

I don’t want to sound harsh OP but…


Switching to online doesn’t make you exponentially weaker.

The first few games of online chess I played had me in the 800-900 range, and I only knew the rules (and even then, I was unaware of repetition and the 50 move rule.) which is the average rating range on this site.

To be below that means you are below average in a player base predominantly composed of weak hobby players.

You may not be new to chess, but you still play at the strength of a beginner.

The thing is, 1.c4 is perfectly fine, however, there are many positional concepts that come with that opening that a beginner is simply unable to properly follow. That is why playing 1.e4 for example, can be a good opening to begin playing chess and as you become better, then move into other openings such as the English.

English opening is a good one but you should try new opening which give you knowledge about defences and opening to play good on each openings