English opening How to combat the copy cat

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MarkusRoman
In this game black plays the ultra-symetrical line of the english opening: Is there any good counter to this for white?
Ethan_Brollier

I mean just do what you did. Nothing Black does in the Ultra-Symmetrical is all that threatening, so you can just kind of be a tempo up and then cash that in for a pawn or a piece as Black scrambles to catch up.

MarkusRoman

Ya that looks about right, I played it against the 3200 bot some and it makes for some pretty intresting positions

ThrillerFan

I would suggest castling first.

6.O-O O-O and then 7.d4, which is theory.

I would not worry too much about 7...d5. This is where Black needs to go asymmetrical and play 7...cxd4 8.Nxd4, which will typically transpose to a fianchetto King's Indian after ...d6 shortly. Some have also played 7...d6, but 7...d5 is just not good for Black.