English Opening: How to Use the Common Chess Opening

The English Opening is a hypermodern flank opening—meaning it discards the advice of certain classical chess traditions and starts from the leftward flank of white’s side of the board.

The Englishman Howard Staunton first deployed this chess opening in 1843 at an international match against the Frenchman Pierre Charles Fournier de Saint-Amant. Experts retroactively consider it an unofficial world championship match of sorts. The move derives its name from Staunton’s homeland.

Since then, many official world chess champions and grandmasters from all reaches of the globe have deployed the move. Bobby Fischer from the United States, the Scandinavian Magnus Carlsen, and the Russians Mikhail Botvinnik, Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov, and Boris Spassky have all made use of the English Opening in prominent matches.

To perform an English Opening, white plays the c-pawn by moving it two spots ahead to the first light square (the c4 space). In algebraic chess notation, this appears as 1. c4. The English Opening is far from the only chess opening that starts with a white pawn advancing. Since white always gets the first move, white players must decide whether to play a pawn (as in the English Opening) or a knight (as in the Réti Opening) first. All other chess pieces cannot move on their first turn. Your main choice is often less about whether to use a pawn to start the game as it is about which one to use and whether you want to move it one or two spaces forward.

The English Opening is a very simple move with a lot of exciting possibilities. Here are just five reasons you might decide to use it:

1. 1. The English Opening allows flexibility. Chess is often a game of transposition. The English Opening is just one move that opens up a possible main line to begin controlling the midsection of the board. But should it prove ineffective, you can transpose your strategy with a little more ease and security than you would if relying on a more typical opening move. It sets you up for strategies like the Maróczy Bind, which can assist you with gaining an extra tempo (or turn).
2. 2. The English Opening creates queenside pressure. Keeping pressure on your opponent is an essential element of any chess game, and the English Opening achieves that effect from the first move. By advancing your d-pawn, you signal you’ll begin building a pawn structure on the black queenside area of the board while keeping your own king and queen relatively shielded.
3. 3. The English Opening encourages variety. The English Opening is less common and harder to defend against than several other common chess opens. Moving the king’s pawn as your first move might free up the light-squared bishop earlier, but it’s also the most popular starting move in chess. Your opponent is likely ready for you to deploy the second most common first move as well (moving your queen’s pawn forward). Using the English Opening will likely set up a far more unique and entertaining middlegame and endgame.
4. 4. The English Opening preempts tough defenses by black. The English Opening helps neutralize a host of black defenses. The popular Nimzo-Indian, Slav, Grünfeld, and Dutch defenses, as well as the King’s Indian Defense, all have a much harder time getting off the ground when you start the game with the English Opening.
5. 5. The English Opening restricts black’s position. The English Opening factors into how black plays even though it’s a white move. For instance, your opponent is unlikely to move a black piece into danger early on—so you can practically guarantee early control of the d5 square (one place where black would move a pawn to take yours).

Opposing players often respond to the English Opening in predictable ways. Here are just four potential courses of action your opponent might take:

1. 1. The Four Knights Variation: This counterplay to the English Opening involves both players getting all four of their knights onto the kingside and queenside areas of the board as quickly as possible. Though the move order might vary, the most common approach is 1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Nf3 Nc6. As an alternative, a Symmetrical Four Knights Variation proceeds like so: 1.c4 c5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nc3 Nc6.
2. 2. The Hedgehog Defense: Black takes on an incredibly cramped and defensive posture in this response to the English Opening. Don’t let this fool you—it’s a ploy to eventually counterattack from a heightened place of security. This is a common example of the Hedgehog Defense: 1.c4 c5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nc3 e6 4.g3 b6 5.Bg2 Bb7 6.O-O Be7. The O-O notation stands for a rook and king castling.
3. 3. The Reversed Sicilian Defense: If black moves their e-pawn to e5 in response to an English Opening, you’re in the throes of the Reversed Sicilian Defense. This is a mirror image of one of the most common opening black responses in all of chess.
4. 4. The Symmetrical English: You can expect a Queen’s Gambit Declined and a lot of other maneuvering throughout this response to an English Opening, particularly in an Ultra-Symmetrical Variation (notated as 1.c4 c5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.g3 g6 4.Bg2 Bg7). After some moves with pawns, both players fianchetto their bishops (or move them upward by one space).

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