Best Defense Against English Opening

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Avatar of njodidio542
linuxblue1 wrote:

Actually there is another system that I like against 1.c4

Play 1..Nf6 then 2...e6 and 3..d5

Not the most ambitious. But pretty solid. May transpose into Queen's pawn games or a NimzoIndian. So if you don;t like those that's worth thinking about.

You must be careful with move transpositions here:
1.c4 Nf6 2. Nc3 e6 3.e4 and White avoids the QGD with the Flohr-Mikenas Attack.
And if 1...e6, White can go with 2.e4 in the French / Steiner variation.

Avatar of Preggo_Basashi

I play 1...e5

But I don't like the absolute main lines anymore. Every little kid knows it to move 20 so there's no point.

I go for either a reversed rossilimo, or the e5 g6 d6 f5 stuff.

Avatar of kindaspongey

The August 2018 issue of Chess lists the top twenty openings compiled from a list of 2415 May games where both players were rated over 2400 Elo. One can not take position on this list too seriously because it is greatly influenced by how the openings are grouped. For example, all the Retis are grouped together, while English is separated into 1...c5, 1...e5, etc. Nevertheless, for what it is worth, some of the list entries are: 181 Retis, 104 declined Queen's Gambits, 97 King's Indians, 95 Caro-Kanns, 89 Berlin Lopezes, 79 Nimzo-Indians, 70 Najdorf Sicilians, 68 Slavs, 65 1...e5 Englishes, 55 Catalans, 53 Petroffes, 43 1...c5 Englishes, 42 1...e6 Englishes, 42 1...Nf6 Englishes, 42 Giuoco Pianos, and 42 Classical Gruenfelds.

Avatar of annxe2010

1.d5 is best. I love anglo-scandinavian

Avatar of goldenbeer
I play symmetric