English 1.c4 e5 for Black

From the beginning we are taught to play for the center, to develop the pieces and to secure our king. But as time goes on these "compulsory rules" lose their force, we allow more and more exceptions, until at some point we pick up our first chess textbook and discover that we have to repeat the general principles from scratch. It is the same with openings. To confuse their opponents, many players today have taken to playing the English Opening with White - 1.c4 - which violates the golden rule of occupying the center on the very first move. Actually, you should have already heard from my sentences above that I have prepared for you the classic move 1...e5 against 1.c4. Some may object that they are not ready to play the Sicilian with reversed colors and one tempo less. But in the plan of quiet positional play, which is very much in the spirit of the Rossolimo Variation, this tempo is not so important, while many ideas work just as well as if we had White. Except for 3…d5, which deserves a separate DVD, I tried to explain the main plans for Black like ...Bb4, ...Bc5 and even ...Nd4. Of course, 2.Nc3 Bb4 is not left out either, which has long been played by Moldavian Chebanenko students. Before starting this DVD, I was sure that Black would have problems in this line, but to my surprise, I found a way to equalize! Of course, I based this on recent games and strong computer analysis. So, play 1.c4 e5, because this corresponds to the main principle of chess - "Occupy the center"! Video time: 4 hrs 26 mins (English)