The english opening

 I was just wondering if the english opening is a good one (which is played by white and starts with c4 followed by knight to c3). Variations can occur after, but what do you guys think about it. I usually open with this as white or sometimes the Italian game with king's pawn. I know fischer used it agaisnt kasparov in a game and won but i am not a gm. I appreciate the input.

fischer against kasparov?? you mean spassky

its a good opening, third most common opening for white in tournaments in fact

An excellent opening book IMO is The Dynamic English, by GM Tony Kosten.  It's about ten-years-old now, but it is very well written.  It received a very favorable review when it first came out in an issue of the late, great Inside Chess Magazine.

i think its more suitable for more advanced/experienced players as a transpositional tool - transposing into favourable variations or lines or different openings(KID, maroczy bind accelerated dragon, benoni, reversed dragon and so on...). also Nf3 is popular as the 2nd move, instead of Nc3. ive read about the differences between the 2 before but it was so complicated.

My favourite opening, followed by Nf3.

The English is my second favorite opening, actually I use it in preference to King's Pawn these days just because I detest Sicilian and I like to avoid popular theory. My second move is usually g3 as opposed to the knight, I like to fianchetto right away and let the king's knight sit for a while, I always felt like it gives you more flexibility with the bishop controlling the diagonol temporarily early.

I think it is a good opening to learn for the surprise element, since opponents on chess.com who do not study the game or play OTB, are likely to have little experience of it.

From 250 games, half as black, my opponents have only played the English twice.

I've played the English in every OTB game I've ever played as white, with good results.

Some nice books and DVDs on the English are:

The Dynamic English

Play the English

English Opening DVD from Chessbase

Against 1.c4 I have difficulties as transpositional possibilities can be very manipulative. I'm sure it's a great opening particularly if you do your homework. 

 ya Spassky, my bad.

Though Fischer played 1 c4 in several of the games with Spassky in 1972 only one could really be classified as an English opening as all of the others quickly transposed to queens gambits. Spassky played 1.... c5 in one of the games and only that one game was really an "English" opening.

If you have problems with transpositions against the English play 1 c4 then 2 g3. This move order limits Black's responses a little and avoids some annoying possiblities. I have been playing the Botvinnik English OTB with the above two starting moves for about 30 years with pretty good results.

Yea the botvinnik is cool, but its best only against closed sicilian-reversed sort of setups.

I am a B/C class player and have been using the Botvinnk setup for quite awhile and have had very good results with it, even against higher rated opponents.  And have been told by 1900+ players that my opening is very strong. 

I wouldnt recommend it for beginners, but it is a very strong opening to know for C class players and above.

I prefer to transpose into an english opening by playing 1.Nf3 followed by an eventual c4.

That may be the reason I have not seen this very much, if not at all.  Being not as high a caliber of player.  I will be sure to read on the English.  Could be useful, especially because it is not seen often.