BPaulsen wrote on 11/19/09 at 08:58:47:
parisestmagique wrote on 11/19/09 at 08:45:56:
I like the English opening but my problem is 1.c4 c6 and 1.c4 e6. Books about the English often gives tedious lines like 1.c4 c6 2.Nf3 d5 3.g3 Nf6 4.Bg2 dxc4 wich was already called "a dubious gambit" by Raymond Keene in Flank openings in the seventies ...
1. c4 e6 2. Nc3 d5 will transpose to an exchange QGD, the good kind.
1. c4 c6 is a little more tricky - you could opt for a Gurevich anti-Slav, a Steiner Caro-Kann, or go into a normal Slav.
I have been toying with this idea myself.
After 1. c4 e6 2. Nc3 d5 3. d4, in addition to the option of a QGD, Black has the option of 1. c4 e6 2. Bb4, 1. c4 e6 2. Nc3 d5 3. d4 c5 (Tarrasch) and 1. c4 e6 2. Nc3 d5 3. d4 c6 (Triangle).
Further White must play 2. Nc3 against 1... Nf6 so as not be move ordered which would gives White the option of a Mikenas attack after 1. c4 Nf6 2. Nc3 e6 3. e4, but then there is also 1. c4 Nf6 2. Nc3 e5 3. g3 Bb4 which is not covered by Marin and which you have to research on your own.
Of course, once you are prepared to do the extra work, White has a reasonable shot at an edge in all these lines. Of these possibilities, the only one I don't particularly like for White is the later: 1. c4 Nf6 2. Nc3 e5 3. g3 Bb4.
Some good resources to supplement Marin for this repertoire would be Schandorff's
Playing the Queen's Gambit (QGD, Tarrasch and Triangle),
Dangerous Weapsons:Flank Openings by Kosten, Palliser & Vigus (the Mikenas Attack and the Gurevich Slav) and possibly Watson's
Mastering the Chess Openings Vol. 3 to fill in the other blanks like 1. c4 e6 2. Bb4 and 1. c4 Nf6 2. Nc3 e5 3. g3 Bb4.
Of course there may be some other independent possibilities for Black I may have missed.
After looking at this idea further, I just realized that after 1.c4 Nf6 2. Nc3 c5, White has no convenient way to avoid the Hedgehog. Yeah, I know...silly me.
More and more, it seems to be that the extra options avoided by playing 2. Nc3 are not worth it when you look at the wide range of extra options it gives to Black. I can see why Kosten and Marin like 2. g3. Amazingly, Marin chose 2.g3 and is having to write three volumes. Imagine if he had chosen 2. Nc3.
Pages: 
Grandmaster Repertoire 1.c4 by Marin (Read 377978 times)
