Whenever I face the English, the game usually turns into a slow, quiet, positional maneuvering game. In a blitz game I can try some crazy unsound gambit (1. c4 d5?! 2. cxd5 e6 3. cxe6 Bxe6), but if I face this in a longer game, this wouldn't be a good idea. So I am wondering what you recommend as a response to the English, and I would prefer something aggressive.

By the way, don't criticize that gambit too much. This post isn't about that gambit.

Thanks for reading.

I'm starting to play the Tarrasch Defense (1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 c5) against the Queen's Gambit, though nobody's played the QG against me since I made that decision. I was thinking that 1. c4 e6 might transpose into the Tarrasch, or possibly something better for me if my opponent refuses to play d4 early.

--Fromper

Yeah. I do the same thing. 1.c4 e6 2.Nf3 d5 and most of the time you'll get 3.d4 c5.

If my opponent steadfastly refuses to play d4, I'll usually take over the center by playing d4 myself, and supporting with by playing e4. This can be tricky, and is likely to prove insufficient against somebody who's decidated to playing the Reti system, but those people are few and far between and I've scored fine form that position.

The magic of the English Opening lies in its transpositional abilities. In extreme cases, you can still transpose into another major tree of opening even on the 4th move.

Personally when I play the English I tend to push it towards sharper games, but being the English, there is a limit because English was never specifically built of sharp positions unlike the Sicilian.

For Black, I would say the sharpest opening you can get is e5. If you want to go further down the spectrum you can try f5 and immediately blowing stuff up.

Playing c5 in response to c4 leads to the quiet and positional games that you speak of, and for me I tend to deny it by d4.

Well , I am playing the English Opening for quite a long time.
First I have to mention,that after 1.c4 e6(or c6) there is the immediate move 2. e4 ,which leads to a totally different opening.
I also was facing the Englisch Opening with black quite often.
And I think that the best way to fight against it, is to play 1...e5 which leads to the normall 4 knight Position ,and there the best variations are : either d5 or Bc5 or Bb4:
So:
1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Nf3 Nc6 4.g3 and4... d5
4...Bc5
4...Bb4
Try it!