English Defence
The English Defence is a chess opening characterised by the moves:
History
The English Defence was rarely seen in master play before the Second World War, but early instances can be found in the games of Henry Bird, Gyula Breyer, Aron Nimzowitsch and Richard Reti. In the late 1940s and early 1950s the Leicester player P. N. Wallis investigated the potential of the opening, and in the 1970s it was taken up by several leading English players such as Tony Miles and Raymond Keene. During this period Viktor Korchnoi employed the English Defence successfully in game 6 of his Candidates semi-final match against Lev Polugaevsky at Évian 1977.The English Defence remains rare in grandmaster play, but has been used by players such as Nigel Short, Alexander Morozevich, Hikaru Nakamura, Alexander Grischuk and Richard Rapport. The most frequent high-level practitioners have been Jon Speelman, Edvins Kengis and, more recently, Georg Meier.
Description
After 1.d4 e6 2.c4 b6, Black allows White to form a broad with 3.e4, which Black will then attempt to undermine in hypermodern style with moves such as...Bb7,...Bb4, and sometimes even...Qh4 and/or...f5.Common lines are as follows:
1.d4 e6 2.c4 b6 3.e4 Bb7 4.Bd3 Bb4+ 5.Nc3 f5 6.Qe2 Nf6.
1.d4 e6 2.c4 b6 3.e4 Bb7 4.Bd3 Nc6 5.Ne2 Nb4 6.Nbc3 NxBd3 7.QxNd3 Ne7 8.0-0 d6.
1.d4 e6 2.c4 b6 3.e4 Bb7 4.Nc3 Bb4 5.f3 f5.
If White decides against playing e4, for example by opting for 3.Nc3, play will likely transpose to a form of b6 Nimzo-Indian Defence, for example via 3...Bb7 4.Nf3 Bb4 5.Qc2 Nf6.
White can also transpose to a King's Pawn opening with 2.e4, in which case Black will typically proceed with either 2...d5 or 2...b6.
The English Defence can also arise via a 1.d4 b6 move order, especially at club level where some players adopt 1...b6/2...Bb7 as a universal system.
Example games
- Lev Polugaevsky vs. Viktor Korchnoi, Évian 1977
- Susan Polgar vs. Jon Speelman, Netherlands 1993
- Lucian Filip vs. Igor Kovalenko, Iasi 2014