To Basqueknight : the hippo is in fact a very agressive animal (even against other hippos). As a matter of fact it is the most dangerous animal of Africa, in terms of numbers of humans killed by it every year.

Hello john, me and mates spent several obssessive club sessions analysing 4. Bd3 f5 5. exf5 Bxg2 . It appears to us Black will always run out of constructive moves to make, while White continues development freely and actually has some plans (e.g. Ne2-f4-h5). Still, a weak move by White can botch the whole thing, while even non-theoretical moves by Black need to be respected. 

Trying to work out a win for White OTB without computer assistance requires accuracy..for example consider the line 6. Qh5+ g6 7. fg Bg7 8. gh+ Kf8 9. Ne2! Nf6 10. Qh4 Bxh1 11. Bg5 Kf7!? (not covered in King's book, or Flear's site). Initially me and clubmates (without help of Fritz) concentrated on 12. Nf4?! Nc6 13. Nd2 Nxd4 (now Black has Nf5 and Bf3 ideas) 14. Bg6+ Kf8 15. 0-0-0 Bf3, and now White has to find  16. Ne4!! winning, else White loses! But of course Black also has 15... Nf5!, and White can only go for equal endgame with 16. Bxf5 exf5 17. Rxh1 Rxh7 18. Bxd8 =  , therefore we realised (only on hindsight) 12. Nf4?! is probably not good enough.

I guess our experience has been that the initial moves for White are very important for the course of the whole game, and the trick to playing this line for White is to finish developing the queenside first, and not rush matters, so instead of 12. Nf4?!, probably try 12. Nd2/ 13. 0-0-0 or 12. Nbc3/ 13. 0-0-0, where Black's life is not easy, and I also think this whole 5... Bxg2 business is +-!

At the moment it seems that the critical test of the dynamic English (4. ...Ktc6 is depressingly passive) is Beliavsky's 1; d4 e6 ; 2.c4 b6 ; 3; e4 Bb7 ; 4; Bd3 f5 ; 5.ef Bb4+ ; 6. Kf1 Ktf6 ; 7. Be2! although after having thrashed Short with it, he lent his weight to the Black side with a surprising piece sac !(can't remember exactly where he deviated-I'll look it up).
On the other hand, 4. Ktc3 Bb4 ; 5. f3 as recommended in this thread should pose no particular problems to the Black : either the cool 5. ...Kte7, the aggressive 5. ...Qh4+ followed by ...e5 or the immediate 5. ...e5!? give Black good play.
On a final note, I was badly defeated as Black by grandmaster Murey in a rapid tournament recently after 1. c4 b6 ; 2. Ktc3 Bb7 ; 3. e4 (I thought I was up against the TwoPawnAttack) e6 ; 4. d4 Bb4 ;
5. e5!? My first reflex was 5. ...Kte7 ; 6. Qg4 d6 ; 7. Qxg7 Rg8 ; 8. Qxh7 Rxg2, but after the simple 9. Kth3, I was in a bad way. The old fox still has some deadly novelties up his sleeve! To my knowledge, this has been completely overlooked by chess literature.
Any ideas on how to counter this dangerous line?

hi, never thought early a3 lines was a problem (also King's opinion, though he was abit biased to Black in his book!), while i was also impressed by the Avrukh-Grabliauskas game covered by Flear recently. In that game, Black put his bishop on e7, played a5, Na6-c5, and challenged White to make progress. Avrukh didn't seem like getting anywhere, and lost trying too hard. 

perhaps you can vary between 4. Bd3 Nc6, Bb4+, f5  to be less predictable..

By the way, i recently noticed that 4. Bd3 f5 5. exf5 Bxg2 was covered in Gidden's book on 101 Opening Traps, apparently the "free" rook on h1 is an opening trap set by White 

hello, bravehoptoad, your line of reasoning looks simliar to the BDG guys One can't suppose people do not know the theory, or cannot prepare well in this database age. To base one's repertoire on such a narrow tactical bottleneck as 4. Bd3 f5 5. exf5 Bxg2 (or 5... Bb4+) is very risky. Perhaps you can get away with it up to a certain level... but for sure these are not long term solutions, see eg. Bunzmann!

Yes the English Defence is very stimulating to study. It took me alot of time to get enough confidence to play the critical 4. Bd3 as White, perhaps as much as playing 5. Bg5 against the Semi-Slav!

I am considering to play the English Defence against 1. c4 myself. Maybe the best defence to the English Opening is the English Defence?! I agree with Dearing that ... Bxf3 lines should be better for White in theory, but in a practical game, i can accept the positions i see in King's book. 

But imho the English Defence is not so good against 1. d4, because if 4. Bd3 f5 5. exf5 Bxg2 (or 5... Bb4+) does not work, then White is clearly superior.
 
Re 4. Bd3 Nc6, 5. Ne2 followed by kingside attack f2-f4-f5 seems critical, and easy to play for White (see recent game Bareev-Chernyshov Sochi 2005). 5. Nf3 doesn't do much and both King and Stohl (NIC) agree that 5. Ne2 is stronger than 5. Nf3.

After losing a game to the English defence recently , i decided to study the theory! and after reading Daniel King's book and other sources, 1. d4 e6 2. c4 b6 3. e4 Bb7 4. Bd3! looks like the best move on the board, it is certainly most flexible.   
I examined with club-mates the "HORROR LINE" 4.. f5 5. exf5 Bxg2 for a few hours, it seems to us that Black is in some trouble (a semi-zugzwang of sorts) if White plays critical 9. Ne2. From Suttercane's review of Bauer's 1... b6 book, the verdict of this line has not changed since survey in NIC YB 54 (2000). The computer gives =0.00, but can any human defend against 5 pawns worth of initiative?!   
Flear in recent SOS 4 article also preferred 4. Bd3 Bb4+ .