London system vs 1. ...Nf6
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As a relative beginner I’m enjoying playing the London as white because it gives me a fairly solid foundation and a few winning ideas which I’m beginning to recognise. I noticed on the opening explorer when black plays 1. ...Nf6 and white replies 2. Bf4 the odds swing overwhelmingly in black’s favour (33% white win 42% black win). Can anyone explain why this is and what a good alternative would be for white? Thanks!
Mar 28, 2021
0
#2
tkendall249 wrote:
As a relative beginner I’m enjoying playing the London as white because it gives me a fairly solid foundation and a few winning ideas which I’m beginning to recognise. I noticed on the opening explorer when black plays 1. ...Nf6 and white replies 2. Bf4 the odds swing overwhelmingly in black’s favour (33% white win 42% black win). Can anyone explain why this is and what a good alternative would be for white? Thanks!
This is a good example of how to be cautious using the opening explorer. If you play a move or a couple of moves further in most of the lines, the stats normalize to the standard win and draw percentages. For a few lines where Black does have a hefty advantage, these have been played a very, very few number of times (often in single digits). When there are so few games in a particular line, it is not nearly enough information to have a grasp of whether a move is particularly good or not.
Thanks for your reply, but over 7000 games have played 1. d4 Nf6 2. Bf4 with a winning percentage of 42% for black and 33% for white?
Mar 28, 2021
0
#4
I assume because of the number you gave us that that was a masters database.
At your level, the London setup usually scores well except for against one specific setup which I have just shared in this thread:
If you want to use an opening database to see the percentages for Black and White, openingtree keeps a database that's actually from another site, which I cannot mention, but which you can probably guess, because of what I just said. Make sure to change the settings so that it only shows the stats from games played by players of your level to give the most accurate representation of what you are looking for.
Mar 28, 2021
0
#5
I mostly don’t play the London anymore because of some of the 1...Nf6 lines. I know some people do fine with it, but I had bad results and needed something different. I may play the London against 1...d5, but I may go with something different if I see 1...Nf6. Maybe even 2.c4 where you could end up playing against anything. To me, the London was very hard against 1...Nf6.
Mar 28, 2021
0
#6
Without doing any firsthand research, I'd guess it's a move order problem, since 1.d4 Nf6 2.Bf4 affords Black a lot of flexibility. For example, since Black hasn't committed to ...d5, he could choose a KID-type setup where the bishop is misplaced on f4. Or, of course, he could just play ...d5 or ...c5 and transpose back into whichever London line he's most comfortable with. As a Black player, I've always had more trouble against London lines which begin 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3, intending 3.Bf4, since that gives Black less flexibility and he has to commit to a setup more quickly. Of course, after 2.Nf3 g6, you still probably have to let Black play a KID/Grunfeld of their choice, but at least you get to play a reasonable line without already having committed the bishop to f4.
Mar 28, 2021
0
#7
- I guess that’s true. I’ll give it a look since I always played 2. Bf4. When I play the London vs Nf6, it seems like my attack on the queenside is just too slow to concern black, who does what he wants in the kingside. I’ll play some games to check out Nf3. I just don’t want it to feel like I’m playing against a mar del plata, lol.