Black defence against early Queen attacks?

Sort:
benjumi

Hi everyone, 

First time poster here. Circa 1000-1100 daily player on a journey to improve my game. To try and focus my learning I've learnt a couple  of openings for white (my favourite being d4, Nf3, Bf4 - attempting the London system) and a couple defences for black, apparently favouring the French with e6, d5.

I play regularly against a work colleague (c.1200 daily rating) who typically plays e4 into an early queen move as white. Having had watched more and more videos, I know early queen moves are not favoured over developing the centre and getting my minor pieces into the game, so I try to focus my own development and not chase his queen. 

That being said I do find by move 6 or so I am having to defend possible checkmate ideas as he has focused his efforts on pairing his queen with a knight/bishop combination - often attacking f6 when I am playing black. 

What I am asking (in possibly the longest new forum post evar) is are there defences that naturally lend themselves to early queen aggression? 

As an example - here is the game we are currently in - all be it it is one of his less aggressive queen plays:


 Note: I am not looking for advice on where to take this game next and yes I know this is not the London system opening, I played e4 just to mix it up a little. 

Strangemover

So a couple of things about the game you posted. I would have preferred to play 4.Nf3 than 4.dxe5 because I can then develop another piece and threaten Bg5 but no biggy. The main thing is after 6.Qb4 you reply Qc1 which is a very passive way to handle things. Obviously you stop Qxb2 but this measly flank pawn is irrelevant, you should develop another piece eg.Qd2 and let him have it if he wants. So if Qxb2 then Rb1 Qa3 and you have 5 pieces developed on nice squares vs his 1 poorly placed queen. This is plenty enough compensation for a pawn. Then in such a situation you must try to take advantage of this development lead by hitting weak spots and not giving black the time to 'catch up'. Basically be assertive and active, avoid passive play.

benjumi

Thanks for the comments Strangemover. I did feel that my Qc1 move was passive but I think my issue was that I dismissed Qd2 as I missed the (now blatantly obvious) fact that Qd2 would defend my knight on c3.

 

My mind only saw the potential fork on a1 / c3 and the break in my queenside pawn structure. A lesson learnt for future! 

 

Thanks for the comment Strangemover, sir!