London System Chess Opening

Dear chess enthousiast,

The London System chess opening is currently going through a revival. This is largely due to the fact that such world top players as world champion GM Magnus Carlsen, Russian top player GM Alexander Grischuk and American veteran GM Gata Kamsky have been employing the opening system on many occasions and with success.

But the London system also has become very popular among club- and tournament players of lower levels for other reasons. These reasons include:

• the system can be played against nearly all setups that Black chooses
• this sidesteps the necessity for the White player to familiarize himself with (main) lines against all of Black’s main defenses
• Black will not be able to play his favorite main line defenses
• Black therefore is often less well prepared
• Black reportedly often feels frustrated when having to face the London system
• White can have this warm fuzzy feeling that he is playing his own pet system and can become very good at it

Over the course of the years a number of books have been written about the London system chess opening and also a lot of videos have seen the light of day. I think the time has come for me to also form myself an opinion about the London system and see to what extent it can serve the purposes of us The Chess People!

Now, for most of us the problem of an opening repertoire is unsolvable. If you choose to play all the main and principled lines you have to become a professional, there is just too much to study. If you choose to play pet lines and systems on the other hand, there will be definite chess technical weak spots in your repertoire. These pet systems after all normally violate one or the other chess principle, albeit it sometimes only very slightly.

I have always advised my students to play “chess” and have therefore mainly preached the classical and principled approaches, but in the case of the London system I have become attracted to the more pragmatic approach of playing a “pet” system.

Above we have listed a number of advantages of playing a pet system such as the London system. These advantages are substantial. But we also have to consider the most important drawbacks. They are chess technical in nature:

• with the move 2.Bf4 White does not put immediate pressure on the center as 2.c4 does (especially if Black has answered 1…d5)
• with the move 2.Bf4 White delays kingside development and castling, which under circumstances can jeopardize White’s king a bit
• with the move 2.Bf4 White abandones some dark squares on his queenside, which Black can try to take advantage of
• with the move 2.Bf4 White in the form of this “London” bishop offers Black a target to chase and pursue
• with the structure c3/d4/e3 White is not taking a very ambitious stance in the center. This makes it more difficult for him to gain space (put a wedge pawn on the fifth rank into Black’s territory), and also makes it more difficult to open up lines for his rooks

Chess technically speaking this means that there are several lines in which Black can play for clear equality. Subsequently White cannot always to expect to come out of the opening with even the slightest of advantages. On the other hand the system is solid enough, especially since it is White who is playing a pet system and not Black, meaning that with the first move in hand he can afford a thing or two.

OK, now that we have our expectations tempered we can nonetheless try and forge a weapon out of the London system, much along the lines of Magnus Carlsen’s approach: “OK, I may have played Bf4 which may be slightly inferior in some respects, but from now on I intend to play the very best moves, and by the way dear opponent, aren’t you a bit on your own now?”

And this is where my recent work is coming in. I have started to employ the London system in my own over-the-board games. I also practice it a lot playing online blitz games and analyzing them immediately afterwards. Out of these experiences I am building a large database with many relevant positions for the opening, middlegame and even endgame stages. I must say, so far I am happy with the results and my findings. I also feel like a world traveller and discoverer of new territories. And last but not least, it teaches me a lot about chess! Because, hey in the end in each and every opening the pieces move exactly the same.

The good news is that I have decided to share my work with the public and I intend to offer my database for sale. Now, the database is not yet finished – I want to reach several hundred well researched positions and game fragments – but I am surely working towards that goal. As mentioned the database will consist of positions for the opening, middlegame and endgame stages, but will also be ordered according to theme and the setup that Black chooses. I will suggest recommendations for many positions and will also diverge from certain ways of playing that are said to be common to the London system.

The main format of the database will be a ChessBase file (the package will also contain a .pgn-file of all positions and game fragments). The advantage is that it is very common to most chess players and that I can use Chessbase training functionality as well. Next to that all positions can be sorted according to game phase, theme and Black’s setup and can also be printed out for your training convenience. In later videos I will discuss sample positions, so you can get a better feel for the contents of the product.

I’m sure that for those chess players out there that are interested in playing the London system this database can be of huge benefit. If you want to keep up-to-date with my progress on the product and want to be informed of it’s release, then please subscribe to my YouTube channel.

That’s it from me for now, I’ll keep you posted!

Cheers,
Waldemar