English opening! HELP PLEASE

Okay, so I have this friend who ALWAYS uses the English opening. That is 1. c4. How should I reply? What should I do? HELP!!

ps: i currently have no games going on at this moment against the English

1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 Bb4

If 3.Nd5 Be7=

That is a nice response.

Much, much too wide to say.  Is he a lot better, is it he just knows the opening?  Are you just tired of formless moves?  What are you looking for?  The 1... e5 lines give you the clearest path, 1... Nf6 gives you the most transpositional choices and 1... c5 never appealed to me so I don't know much about it. 

If you like open games and don't mind an isolate Qp then you can use my move order to shy away from slow english opening manuevering by playing

Maybe you could stop playing him ... or stop playing all together!  

Orrrrrr, you could step up and figure things out.  Buy a book.  Maybe even read it!  

Asking other people to just TELL you what to do will not improve your game.  

I like playing openings as black that work against both 1. c4 and 1. d4. For a while, I played the Tarrasch Defense for this reason (e6, d5, and c5 against almost anything but 1. e4, though you might have to play an early Nf6 to make the move order work against the English). Lately, I've switched to the Dutch (1. ... f5). I just like having a single line against any non-e4 openings, so I don't have to learn as many openings as black.

--Fromper

Play ur fave defence to 1.d4. eg if you like QGD, play 1..e6 2.Nc3 (usual) d5 Now ur threatening d4, so white generally plays d4 in response. If you play the Dutch, play 1...f5, or 1...Nf6 if u like the Indians.

Note: U can also do this against 1.Nf3, usually

yeah, I agree trying to angle to your 1.d4 defense is the best way to go (esp. if youre low on study time) of course not all lines transpose easy. my grunfeld doesnt get to better lines sometimes, and benoni wont always work as well either.

I pay 1...e5 2...Nf6 like an Open Sicilian minus a move. You might want to look at an opening book to see how you think it stacks up against other responses to the English, but I think its a fun line.

You are playing the Tarrasch Defence in that line so you need to look at that.

English players hate meeting that so just get a little book time in on the Tarrasch

 I would be easy on the statements that XXX players hate yyyy.  An English player that doesn't play or know QG defenses shouldn't play 1. c4 ... he should play 1. e4...  The English will either go "full English" or it will transpose to a 1. d4 ... defense depending on the move of both players but White will, or should, be prepared for the normal possibilities of the move.

If anything I would say those who play c4 or d4 dislike some defense against e4, Sicilian, Caro, French, Ruy, whatever and those who play e4 dislike some defense against d4, Indian, Slav, Dutch, etc.

Of course if you're talking about english, english players I'm not in a position to comment.