Help with the English Opening

Do you know any good books on the English opening. (1.c4)

There are a few lines I have been running into that cause me trouble. One in paricular goes like this

1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 Bb4

Exchanging pieces makes a mess of my pawn formation (I like to have a2,b2,c4,d3,e2,f2,g3,h2)

The only way to stop this exchange resulting in a doubled pawn seems to be 3. Qc2?!

Another line that I lost to was 1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.g3 d5

I made a right balls up of it and ended up with the Black queen on d3 covered by the knight and with no means of defending

Originally posted by jugglingeek
Do you know any good books on the English opening. (1.c4)

There are a few lines I have been running into that cause me trouble. One in paricular goes like this

1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 Bb4

Exchanging pieces makes a mess of my pawn formation (I like to have a2,b2,c4,d3,e2,f2,g3,h2)

The only way to stop this exchange resulting in a doubled pawn seems to be 3. Qc2?!

Personally, I don't like the Nc3-d5 solution. It opens up your knight to pawns threats and can result in your opponent getting quicker development.

I've always been taught to simply let the trade happen. Take back with the b pawn and it will give you an extra pawn to use to leverage the center squares and also give you an open rank to put your rook on to launch a queen-side attack. Of course, you could also take back with the d pawn and use the open rank to blast down the center.

My favorite English book is Korchnoi's 300 best games. While not an English book per se, he was an avid English player that wielded the opening as an unbelievably versitile weapon. These days, you can just look his games up online...

I sugest Tony Kosten: Dynamic English.

GREAT book if you want to learn the opening. Kosten gives this move order: c4, g3, Bg2, and then Nc3, avoiding unpleasant early Bb4.