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English Chess Opening

There are many setups for Black to play versus the English Chess Opening, but I recommend a clearcut and commonsense approach. Just answer 1.c4 with e5 to create a stronghold on e5, this helps to orientate, and put your chess pieces on natural squares.

english chess opening

This means you put your knights on f6 and c6, and put your black bishop on c5 which is the most effective square as it puts pressure on f2. Or put it on b4 where it might pin the knight.

This setup below is just commonsense. I collected some games from strong chess grandmasters for you below. Just replay them and watch where the pieces go and which kind of strategy is used. You can replay other games of the English Opening here.

Replay Chess Games of the English Chess Opening

Flip Board: Press F-Key (or click e7 or d2 on top) Select a game: Click on grey bar

Back – to – Chess Openings

How Chess Grandmaster Igor Smirnov developed his chess teaching system.