D02 Queen's Pawn opening: London System

I've Recently started playing this system, and I like it a lot, I'm looking for the strategy to continue in this opening.

What should be my target/motive?

What can I play other than 4.h3?

What can I play after 4.h3?

What is black's best reply to this system? 

Also, if you could recommend a solid black opening against 1.d4? as I Only know the sicilian defense and usually lose if 1.d4 is played.

Cheers.
CF95
 

I reccomend you the modern benoni.

@thegeneral14, what if 3.dxc5?

Then both Na6 and Qa5+ is possible and good for black. But the main line is not very solid. White gets better development and attacking chances. Black has tactical counterplay. A solid line is the Queens Gambit Declined (1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6), see the World Championsship 1927 for alot of QGD games.

Either e6 or Qa5+.

4.c4 looks good to me. I don't think there's any point in playing e3/c3 here.

C4 trasposes into Queen's gambit. With c3 white's position is more stable.

If you know the Sicilian Defense against e4, you might be familiar with the Paulsen-Taimanov System and Hedgehog positions that can arise from it.

The Hedgehog can also come up in d4-openings, that is from the Nimzo-Indian Defense / Queens Indian Defense type of openings.

If you familiarize yourself with this one position and the plans/ideas/strategies and the move orders via which it can be reached, you have an efficient repertoire for Black.

And not only that; the Hedgehog is as solid as it can get!

One word of warning though: The hedgehog does require some experience/understanding of when to break open the center. If you do it too early your position comes apart and if you wait too long you get crushed. It is not easy, but then again, what is easy in chess? 

Hedgehog position: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedgehog_%28chess%29

and if you speak any german at all:

http://www.herderschach.de/Training/Themen.html

http://www.herderschach.de/Training/Online/index-tr048.html#a3

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igel_%28Schach%29

I believe there also is a Chessbase DVD in their PowerPlay series by GM Daniel King, who is usually very good. I have not watched this one yet myself, so I don't know if I can really recommend it.

As for the London System; that topic was recently brought up in a discussion on the Colle-Zukertort:

http://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/colle-system15?page=2

You might want to have a look at the Alekhine game I posted there for example.

Oh, and as for your diagram: 4.h3 is perfectly playable, but personally I much prefer 4.e3 so that I can develop my lsb (to d3) and then castle kingside. If black really goes for Nh5 to attack the bishop on f4, just let him! If he exchanges you recapture with the e-pawn and have a nice half-open e-file for your rook and the pawns are not bad at all. The "extra" / 4th pawn on your kingside will allow you to pressure your opponents kingside, while still keeping your castle safe.

And if you prefer to stick with 4.h3 it does not change much about your desired positional setup: You still will want to play e3, Bd3, probably c3, Nbd2, probably Ne5. It all depends on what your opponent does. The London System is very flexible and allows for different plans and continuations. Go over some master games to get the general ideas! Then play it a couple of times to get a good feel for it.

One more thing: I think that most Black players will not play Nc6 so early. They don't want to block their c-pawn. c5 is most common instead of Nc6 and e6 is also frequently played as an alternative.

Thanks people!

h3 is fine.

Ensuing moves:

e3,c4,nc3,rc1...delay the king bishop development so that if black plays dxc, you can recapture with the bishop in 1 move. And of course...castle.

Things to note:

With the black knight on c6, c7 could become a point to strike at with your f4 bishop/c3 knight via Nb5 and queenside rook.

If black plays Bf5, you might want to consider playing a3 to keep Nb4 out of the picture.

I dont understand the move h3, but that doesnt mean that it makes no sense :-)

Actually Whites dream setup is Ne5, Qf3-h3 and a pawn rush at the kingside.

E.g.

http://www.365chess.com/game.php?gid=2303434

That move Nc6 is bad (IMHO) and does not change Whites plan. It just blocks Blacks c-pawn, so Black has no counterplay at the queenside.