Pawn b4, Bishop e2, Rook b1 or c1 are my options.
London System Theory for early …c4
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I think you should play b3, if he takes you will take with the a pawn and you will have a open a file for your rook and you can play c4 and destroyed his center.
If he don't take you will take bxc4 dxc4 Bxc4
looking forward
anesboumazza escribió:
If he don't take you will take bxc4 dxc4 Bxc4
There's also ... b5 and then a4.
If he reinforces with b5 you take bxc4 and after bxc4 Rb1 you have the b open file and he can't challenge you in this file because he can't play Rb8 thanks to your f4 Bishop who control that square, and you will play Be2 Qc2, castle king side and play for e4 push with Rfe1 and Bd1 after you achieve this push you will be clearly better if he takes dxe4 he will have a c4 isolated pawn and if he don't continue with e5 kicking his f6 Knghit
And you will have good attacking chances. With ideas like Ng5 treating mate in h7, and just attack, and you dont play alone look also in your opponent moves and stop his ideas.
Jan 4, 2022
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#12
anesboumazza escreveu:
If he don't take you will take bxc4 dxc4 Bxc4
I think there is a strategical issue:
- Even if black takes the b-pawn, he could still play a6, ruining white’s plans to develop his bishop and rendering the a-file useless.
Jan 4, 2022
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#14
broadwaydude wrote:
So I have watched out all of the London system vids from Ginger GM, but I am still completely lost when my opponent play c4 and prevents me from developing my bishop. Any places I can find some theory on what to do if that happens?
This is similar to the c4-c5 pawn advance in the Queen's Gambit Declined. If your opponent advances his c-pawn in such positions, one logical plan is to try to advance your e-pawn. The reason is that now there's less pressure on the d-pawn, so the e-pawn is no longer needed as added support. It is now free to advance (if possible) and gain space in the center.
Like so:
It's really not a good move by black, it's not good in this situation and simply creates weaknesses. b3 with a4 in the future should deal with it nicely. Play Qc2 first to protect everything 
. You will get really nice queenside play if black overextends like this. There are variations where it is good for black though, but not this one.
then people criticize when i say london players can't think for themselves lol (haters before you comment just chill it's a joke... as someone once said here "take a london player out of book and put 0-1 in the scorecard" ----) anyways too many responses to read, don't know if anyone said it yet but you could maybe try to not blindly follow every move in the same order regardless of what your opponent does, had you played Be3 before Nbd2 for example you could then drop your bishop to c2 after c4.... anyways that c4 move is not good (even though the engine says its okay) because it makes it easy for you to play e4...
but if for some reason you end up in this position again just play Be2 and keep on playing, aim to get that e4 break... just because you couldn't follow the london recipe doesn't mean you're gonna lose or that you're worse... don't get too attached to that setup, there are many many occasions where playing a different move is way better than than those same old first 7-8 that the vast majority of the london players play brainlessly
Jan 4, 2022
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#17
pfren wrote:
# different possible strategies when white plays ...c4:
- Qc2 and eventually e3-e4, when the c4 pawn may well be exposed.
- Simply Be2, followed by 0-0, Ne5 and f4. Or even Qc2/Qb1 and e3-e4 again.
- b3, followed by a4 whenever Black plays ...b5.
All of them should be good against a committal move like c4. I would probably play Be2, although all these choices are interesting.
OMG better trust an IM! Thank you for the tips!
Jan 4, 2022
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#18
Morfizera wrote:
then people criticize when i say london players can't think for themselves lol (haters before you comment just chill it's a joke... as someone once said here "take a london player out of book and put 0-1 in the scorecard" ----) anyways too many responses to read, don't know if anyone said it yet but you could maybe try to not blindly follow every move in the same order regardless of what your opponent does, had you played Be3 before Nbd2 for example you could then drop your bishop to c2 after c4.... anyways that c4 move is not good (even though the engine says its okay) because it makes it easy for you to play e4...
but if for some reason you end up in this position again just play Be2 and keep on playing, aim to get that e4 break... just because you couldn't follow the london recipe doesn't mean you're gonna lose or that you're worse... don't get too attached to that setup, there are many many occasions where playing a different move is way better than than those same old first 7-8 that the vast majority of the london players play brainlessly
Hello. I mostly struggle with finding the right strategy and goal. Most of my plans revolve around the bishop eye blacks h-pawn attacking the kingside, so when I'm not able to put my bishop on that diagonal, it's hard for me to come up with a decent plan. What weaknesses should I seak middle game?
broadwaydude wrote:
Morfizera wrote:
then people criticize when i say london players can't think for themselves lol (haters before you comment just chill it's a joke... as someone once said here "take a london player out of book and put 0-1 in the scorecard" ----) anyways too many responses to read, don't know if anyone said it yet but you could maybe try to not blindly follow every move in the same order regardless of what your opponent does, had you played Be3 before Nbd2 for example you could then drop your bishop to c2 after c4.... anyways that c4 move is not good (even though the engine says its okay) because it makes it easy for you to play e4...
but if for some reason you end up in this position again just play Be2 and keep on playing, aim to get that e4 break... just because you couldn't follow the london recipe doesn't mean you're gonna lose or that you're worse... don't get too attached to that setup, there are many many occasions where playing a different move is way better than than those same old first 7-8 that the vast majority of the london players play brainlessly
Hello. I mostly struggle with finding the right strategy and goal. Most of my plans revolve around the bishop eye blacks h-pawn attacking the kingside, so when I'm not able to put my bishop on that diagonal, it's hard for me to come up with a decent plan. What weaknesses should I seak middle game?
At your level if you just play the basics and get your pieces developed, king to safety, rooks connected etc etc and keep it simple your opponent will most likely blunder and hang a piece, in which case you capture it and then trade down all the pieces into a winning endgame... knowing basic endgames, basic checkmating patterns helps when converting an advantage... your strategy and goals should be to simply not give pieces away for free and capture your opponents when they do
But if the bishop on e3 is a must for you, as I said, not only you don't have to play the same moves in the same order every single time regardless of what your opponent does, you shouldn't do that... in fact it is encouraged not to .... if you want the bishop on e3 just play Be3 before your opponent plays c4.... once your bishop is on e3, after c4 you just drop it back to c2 and voila
good luck
So I have watched out all of the London system vids from Ginger GM, but I am still completely lost when my opponent play c4 and prevents me from developing my bishop. Any places I can find some theory on what to do if that happens?