Botvinnik and Korchnoi come into consideration I guess...
Who was the greatest English opening player ever?
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Howard Staunton
Petrosian, Korchnoi, Reti, Nimzovitch, Botvinnik and Karpov
Oct 25, 2017
0
#6
Along with all that has been posted, i would also add:
Simon Williams
Jan Smejkal
greydayeveryday wrote:
Howard Staunton
Blackburne 
Well there are a lot of great players but the player that I want to suggest is mostly because he is alive today and u can find his videos and other stuff too, Yasser Seirwan
Oct 25, 2017
0
#9
I second Yasser Seirawan. I'll also throw Aronian and Kasparov out there...neither exclusively play/played 1.c4 but both have played theoretically important games in the English.
In 1972 Bobby Fischer used the English opening to win against Boris Spassky during their world championship event. This win gave Fischer the momentum to turn around his loses and he won the world title. When a chess master was giving me chess lessons he focused on me learning the English opening. He said it was a good opening to learn because there were less complications involved.
Nov 18, 2020
0
#11
Knight_Timer wrote:
In 1972 Bobby Fischer used the English opening to win against Boris Spassky during their world championship event. This win gave Fischer the momentum to turn around his loses and he won the world title. When a chess master was giving me chess lessons he focused on me learning the English opening. He said it was a good opening to learn because there were less complications involved.
He was asking for players that uses it as their main opening. Fischer used it a time or 2. He was still clearly an e4 player.
Nobody really used it exclusively, as most of those at that level that played 1.c4 also played 1.d4, such as many of those already mentioned like Botvinnik, Korchnoi, etc.
I can add another that has not been mentioned to that list. A player well known for playing the French and Grunfeld as Black his whole life was also one to frequent the English. He just died this summer from a fall. Wolfgang Uhlmann.
Nov 18, 2020
0
#13
Jonboy1042 wrote:
1.c4 is my main opening attack when using white and I'm trying to figure out who the greatest player to regularly use this opening was. Have there been any Super Grandmasters that used this as their main opening?
Any suggestions help. Thanks!
If English is your main weapon, then you should definitely familiarize yourself with Karpov's English games.
He's pretty much "required reading" (much like Kasparov is "required reading" when it comes to the King's Indian).
ThrillerFan wrote:
Knight_Timer wrote:
In 1972 Bobby Fischer used the English opening to win against Boris Spassky during their world championship event. This win gave Fischer the momentum to turn around his loses and he won the world title. When a chess master was giving me chess lessons he focused on me learning the English opening. He said it was a good opening to learn because there were less complications involved.
He was asking for players that uses it as their main opening. Fischer used it a time or 2. He was still clearly an e4 player.
Nobody really used it exclusively, as most of those at that level that played 1.c4 also played 1.d4, such as many of those already mentioned like Botvinnik, Korchnoi, etc.
I can add another that has not been mentioned to that list. A player well known for playing the French and Grunfeld as Black his whole life was also one to frequent the English. He just died this summer from a fall. Wolfgang Uhlmann.
I'm sorry to hear about Uhlmann passing away. He was the king of the French players.
As far as 1.c4 is concerned, the best players to study would be positional players such as Karpov and others with similar styles.
Dec 5, 2020
0
#15
Yes, terrible news about Uhlmann. He was one of the unsung heroes of Chess.
1.c4 is my main opening attack when using white and I'm trying to figure out who the greatest player to regularly use this opening was. Have there been any Super Grandmasters that used this as their main opening?
Any suggestions help. Thanks!