The London System, Down All It's Alleyways.
Hello everyone and welcome my first post on a new series! This series will be all about openings, all mainlines in that opening, the ideas of that opening, the tricks, and by the end of each post you should know the opening as if you've been playing it all your life!
Before I begin I want to give some honourable mentions to people who helped me do this.
First goes to @SageChessToad without his help, I would still be chugging away looking for the best main/sidelines, he gave me a lot of stuff annotations, GM lines, basically everything I needed to make this post so a big round of applause to @SageChessToad!
Next up is the JapaneseTutor Community! They inspired me to do this so thanks to them! You can check out the channel here! https://twitch.tv/japanesetutor be sure to drop a follow!
And lastly thank you GM Mikhail Golubev for giving me master games, and showing me some basic ideas/lines.
Alright that's everyone so let's begin this post!
1.
About
The London is looked down by a lot, it's known as the lazy opening, the boring opening etc. but, you're wrong, see at hindsight you are right, nothing exciting happens, basically in all variations you will end with the same position and well, you don't need to study it for hours learning all the lines, you could play it off the bat and things would not go haywire.
But let me describe the London to you in a way that is more accurate, and will make you actually reconsider your thinking of it.
The bear (aka London) in hibernation is boring, it doesn't move, doesn't hunt, it just sits and lies around for what seems like an eternity to us, if you wanted to try and penetrate the cave in which it rests, you are going to have a hard time (aka the set-up) but as boring as it may seem to the outsider, the bear is sleeping with one eye open, it waits for you to nestle down, rest, it lets you think that you are safe, and when you are sleeping it strikes, while you hunt it grabs your legs, once it has laid claim on you, you are finished.
Interested now? Great let's get into it!
2.
Types of Players in the London, Chose Wisely
There are several types of players who play the London, there are the
- Aggressive players, who use the powerful bishops as snipers at the enemy king, who use their rooks as support, their pawns as a battering ram, their knights as assassins, and queen as the infiltrator! Aggressive London players tend to lash out as soon as their pieces are ready, even if they aren't castled! If you castle against an aggressive London player, you better have a strong defense!
- Waiting players, who lie in wait, for their opponents mistake, these players tend to play passively, slowly maneuvering ever so slightly to get in that stronger position, they don't lash out, instead they already think about the endgame, is their pawn structure superiors, are there any weaknesses in the enemy position that they can put some slow poison on? If you are versing a waiting London player, you better start playing as accurate as you can, because every mistake is noted for!
- Passive players, these guys aren't looking for to much excitement, they just want to enter in a solid position and not have to worry about to much, most GMs play like this in blitz games, so they can enter it without any worries, they let their hand do the work until their position is finally set-up, then they start thinking of slow plans to open the position a bit, trade here and there, and if it is played accurately a boring dead draw, if you are versing a passive player, just try play safely and accurately!
If you want to know more about these players, and how to play like them, carry on reading, we're covering everything in the post!
3.
Key Notes for Any London Player
Regardless of what type of London player you are, there are some things you just HAVE to know! So let's get through them! And remember to memorise this part, you defiantly don't want to forget any of this while you are playing your games!
- Do NOT let black take the e5 square!
The e5 square is the decider of who runs the game, and you want to be the one running the game! If you let black successfully take the e5 square, your pawn pyramid is not only useless but black has a lot more activity! Not only that but you've lost the center and well, this game doesn't have many winning chances for you! You'll probably get a draw at the most!
- Do NOT break your pawn pyramid!
The pyramid is a very essential structure to the London, if they attack it, unless the position calls for it, try not to capture but instead let them capture and you recapture so you can keep the pawn structure as normal as possible.
- TRY not to castle queenside. The London is an opening for kingside castling, not queenside castling, it just can be attacked so easily if you castle queenside, of course there are some instances where it is safer for you to castle queenside, or the more aggressive players might castle queenside so they can use more to attack the enemy on the kingside!
4.
The Idea's of the London
There are many ideas of the London, here I will catogorise them for the,
- Aggressive players
- Tactical players
- Casual players
Aggressive Ideas
Being an aggressive player means you understand how to attack, but unlike some openings where you try and go for a quick knock out, the London takes a bit longer to get ready, but once it is ready, you'll be sure to leave a welt on your opponent!
Step one: Get into the ideal London position,
Now you are set-up, this is when we strike, we want our knight to inhabit the beautiful e5 square, then we want to push our h4 pawn up, if your opponent has a Knight on f6 but no knight to recapture if it is taken, do your best to get rid of it, as soon as they have no knight on f6, your queen can safely move to the h5, g4 squares, then your plan is to run the H pawn up the board and trade it so you can get that rook out and keep on threatening checkmate with your queen and bishop! If his pawns are being bothersome, do not be afraid to sac your knights on them, because your queen and the two bishops can easily finish the job!
Tactical Ideas
Now following tactical ideas will only get you so far, once you reach a certain level everyone will know them and they won't be of much use, but these are still great to have at hand!
Note that as your rating increases it does diminish the overall chances of occurrence, this is a range from 1300-1900.
1. Common Tactics (50% Chance of occurrence)
Bxd6 Qxd6 dxc5 Qxc5 Bxh7+!!
GG
Kxh7 Qh5+ Kg8 Ne4!!
Black cannot take otherwise black loses the queen! A lovely pin!
Qc4 Ng5 Qd3
Note that the black queen on d3 is stopping your mate! Qh7+ does not work, and you will lose!
e4!!
Another stunner, blocking off the queen!
Rfd8 Qxf7+ Kh8 Qh5+ Kg8 Rd1!
Getting another piece active while kicking out the pesky queen!
Qb5 b3
That's the end of this tactic, try get your rook into the game and black is finished! Make sure NOT to let blacks queen inside, that could result in some nasty damage!
Nxf7 Rxf7 Bxd6
Another simple tactic for your opponent to fall in for.
Casual Ideas
Following the casual route is probably best when you are playing a high level player, so you can play as accurately as possible, though it is playable at a lower level. Here I shall show you the main lines of the London.
Since the whole database for this would just be huge, I'll just post some small in-depth lines for you to study, feel free to use it as a launch off and do a full in-depth analysis!
5.
Master Games To Look At
SUMMARY
Thanks everyone for reading, this has taken quite the while to make so I hope you enjoy, if you have any questions, ask in the comments I'll be there to answer!
I have a bunch of other posts to publish which will come soon, so make sure you click when I make a new post!
Thanks for reading again! I'm tired now xD
Goodnight, feel free to say hi anytime, share this around and get better at chess!
Yours
@destroyer8470
