English Opening

1. c4 fights for the center from the side, in hypermodern fashion, by taking aim at d5. It frees the queen and ensures the c-pawn will not sit behind a knight once Nc3 is played. Because White holds back the central pawns, the game can later turn into a Queen's Gambit or an Indian Defense when d4 arrives, and the positions generally look more like 1. d4 than 1. e4 play. White can therefore use the move order to bypass certain replies to 1. d4, for instance the Nimzo-Indian or the Grünfeld. After 1. c4 Nf6 2. Nc3 g6, the advance 3. e4 denies Black a Grünfeld and points towards a King's Indian after 3...d6. Botvinnik also met 1. c4 Nf6 2. Nc3 d5 with 3. cxd5 Nxd5 4. g3 in his 1958 title match against Smyslov.

Theory divides the opening into three groups by Black's reply. 1...e5, the King's English or Reversed Sicilian (A20–A29), hands White a Sicilian with an extra tempo, though the parallel is unreliable: major Sicilian lines tend to match obscure English sidelines, and the reverse also holds. A standard development scheme is the Carls-Bremen System, 1. c4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. g3. 1...c5, the Symmetrical Variation (A30–A39), revolves around central breaks with either d-pawn and includes Hedgehog and double-fianchetto setups for Black. It can also cross over into Maróczy Bind Sicilians or the Queen's Gambit Declined.

The remaining replies form A10–A19. 1...Nf6, the Anglo-Indian, keeps Indian Defense transpositions open and lets Black opt for ...c5 or ...e5 later. 1...e6, the Agincourt Defense, prepares ...d5 and often leads to the Queen's Gambit Declined or Catalan types. Its main independent branch is the Mikenas-Carls Variation, 1. c4 e6 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. e4. 1...c6 tends towards Slav or Caro-Kann structures, 1...g6 (the Great Snake) towards the King's Indian or Modern, and 1...f5 towards the Dutch. 1...d5, the Anglo-Scandinavian, has a weaker reputation than the Scandinavian proper. 1...b5, the Jaenisch Gambit, offers a pawn without immediate compensation.

The opening takes its name from Howard Staunton, who used it against Saint-Amant in 1843 and at London 1851, but it gained wide acceptance only in the twentieth century. Botvinnik, Petrosian, Karpov, Kasparov, Carlsen and Ding Liren have all played it in world championship matches. Ding won the fourth game of the 2023 match with it and the twelfth game of the 2024 match against Gukesh. Fischer switched to it from 1. e4 at the 1970 Palma de Mallorca Interzonal and in his match with Spassky. The engine assessment is roughly balanced. In online play, 1...e5 is the most frequent reply, and White scores slightly better than Black overall.