The Jobava London Theory (part 1/3)

The Jobava London

Ladies and gentlemen, The london is probably the best d4 opening after Queen's gambit. Its simple, you can remember it, and it gives you a solid position which will definitely help you in development, and attacking the enemy too. Some people credit it as boring, but this is why The Jobava London exists. If you wanna spice up your London and make it even more exciting, the Jobava London is for you.

This is the Jobava London System. It is a d4 opening that is aggressive and creates heavy imbalance early on in the game. It can be transposed to other openings though so keep that in mind.

So without further ado, let us start!

Chapter #1: The opening

This here is the intial setup of the Jobava London. Most options here end in problems for black for example when:

Or another variation of this defense

So, in short, there is only best move here that does not ruin your development, being c5

Chapter #2 : In the middle

the best move for black to equalize and create good counter play is c5 and the best move for white is e6, strengthening the center and preparing Nb5 looking for the fork.

after this move, a lot of people have gotten into trouble by playing Nc6 and allowing Nb5. always play that if you can get away with it. Engine likes it for white a lot, like +3. but it is much more common for e6 or a trade of center pawns to occur.

However, sometimes you can get a variation that goes like this