English Defense

The English Defense (1.d4 b6) prepares to fianchetto Black's queen's bishop and fight for the centre from a distance. In its usual form it runs 1.d4 e6 2.c4 b6; the move order with 1...b6 is popular especially at club level, where some players use ...b6 and ...Bb7 as a universal system.

Origins

The defence was rarely seen in master play before the Second World War, though early examples can be found in games by Henry Bird, Gyula Breyer, Aron Nimzowitsch and Richard Réti. In the late 1940s and early 1950s the Leicester player P. N. Wallis investigated it, and in the 1970s leading English players such as Tony Miles and Raymond Keene took it up. Viktor Korchnoi used it to beat Lev Polugaevsky in game 6 of their Candidates semi-final at Évian 1977. It remains rare at grandmaster level, but Nigel Short, Alexander Morozevich, Hikaru Nakamura, Alexander Grischuk and Richard Rapport have used it, often as a surprise; its most frequent high-level exponents have been Jon Speelman, Edvins Kengis and Georg Meier.

The idea

Black lets White build a broad pawn centre with c4 and e4 and then attacks it in hypermodern style with ...Bb7, ...Bb4 and sometimes ...Qh4 or ...f5.

Main lines

• 2.c4 e6 3.e4 Bb7, the start of the common lines, for example 4.Bd3 Bb4+ 5.Nc3 f5 6.Qe2 Nf6, or 4.Bd3 Nc6, the Perrin Variation.
• If White avoids e4, for example with Nc3 and Nf3, play often transposes to a ...b6 line of the Nimzo-Indian Defense.
• 2.e4 turns the game into a King's Pawn opening, usually the Owen Defense (1.e4 b6) or, after ...e6 and ...d5, the French Defense.
• Gambits such as the Eastbourne Gambit (2.c4 Bb7 3.Nc3 e5) are rare.

Strengths and weaknesses

Strengths

• An unusual, hypermodern defence, often used as a surprise weapon.
• Active counterplay against White's centre with ...Bb4, ...f5 and ...Qh4.

Weaknesses

• White gets a broad pawn centre, which Black then has to undermine.

Who should play it

The English Defense suits Black players who like hypermodern positions and want a rarely played answer to 1.d4.

The numbers

On Lichess White's lead grows slightly with rating: 49.9% against 46.1% under 1400, 50.3% against 45.8% at 1400–1799, 51.1% against 44.2% at 1800–2199 and 51.0% against 42.8% from 2200 up. There are fewer than a thousand master games, too few to draw firm conclusions.