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English Opening, Nimzowitsch-Flohr Variation (1. c4 e5 2. Nf3 e4)

I play the English opening as White, and I like to play 1. c4 e5 2. Nf3 instead of the more typical 2. Nc3. Generally, it transposes into some sort of four-knight English or symmetrical English (after, say, 2. ... Nf6 3. Nc3).

However, recently I've been facing a lot of 2. ... e4, the so-called Nimzowitsch-Flohr variation. A typical continuation is 3. Nd4 c5, at which point I play 4. Nc2 (see http://en.lichess.org/t6JawSOZ#0 ). I have found online that perhaps a better move for Black is 3. ... Nc6 instead of c5. It seems that the recommendation at this point for White is to play 4. Nxc6, but I would rather play 4. Nc2 again. In any case, White doesn't seem to score well at all in this variation, but there aren't very many games in this variation (that I could find, at least).

Does anybody else play this? I am wondering what a typical plan would be for White in this set-up after 4. Nc2, and whether White is in fact performing poorly in this variation. Is there anything better than 4. Nc2? Also, as I said, I couldn't find many games online with this variation--any example games out there?

Looking forward to hearing comments/suggestions/discussion, whether you fancy the English opening or not!
Funny you should mention this, I experimented with something similar quite successfully last night in the second round of the 90/30 tournament.

The game is here:



The more in depth analysis run today (plus an annotated version of the game by me) is here:

http://en.lichess.org/forum/team-9030-tournament-1/analysis-of-round-2-board-5-hasimir-vs-soze

Not counting forfeits, this is the shortest game of the tournament so far. The longest is AdmiralA's match against Birger (which was a draw). The analysis efforts took far longer than the game did, but that's usually the case when I set the thing to run and then do something else.

I haven't played the English that much (I was looking for something that wouldn't end up as a French Advance initially), so you might find my annotated version of the game either interesting or amusing. I'm good with either. ;)

i never thought 1. .. e5 can be played in english... good idea, i will try it...
Yeah, 1.c4 e5 is kind of like a reverse Sicilian at that point, at least before it goes off on its own tangent.

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