What do you think of the Colle System?

I have see a guy go up to 2000 elo just with the london system for the white. I personnaly use it and will do the same. But it is fine to learn some others, espacially with the black to be prepared for whatever. (The colle is a variant of the london)

As black I just am glad to see white block in his bishop... Yeah, there's like 1 sharp line if black plays right into it and doesn't know the theory, but usually... it plays like a neutered version of most other queens pawn openings. As white if you're willing to sacrifice the engine edge for something unusual there are much more interesting options, like 1. b3 or 1. b4. Heck, you could get an equalish position from almost any opening if you're willing to sacrifice the advantage at some point... why do it via a boring line on move 2 that plays like other things, and why make such a positional concession without any obvious payoff?

I play it... I focus on the Koltanowski Var..

From here on out, this "diatribe" will be based on a repertoire centered around the Koltanowski var.

It's one of those opening that you can get good at attacking. i.e. both on Kingside and Queenside. It's not really a positional opening... it's an "old school classical king's pawn opening filled with violent attacks disguised as a Queens pawn opening

& Don't play it as a system.

I play a lot of pawns to c4.. Mainly against the Chigorin and the Slav.. I don't mess with the Anti-Colle to much .. The Koltanowski is a Semi Slav in reverse... so Slav structures now come natural to me.

Sometimes Black will get cheeky and play d5 and a quick c5 and break from the norm early on. Dependent of what they roll out with I'll play a reverse QG Accepted, ( dxc and a3 stuff ) or a reversed Cambridge Spring (Qa4 and Ne5 ideas) or roll into a reversed Semi Slav by playing (dxc & Bb2 if allowed ) This is one of the reasons why I prefer the Koltanowski var over the Zuckertort var 

The Colle Koltanowski.. main lines of Black's Nbd7, pawn to c4, early b6 lines, all offer White chances for an opening initiative. However......... With the Nc6 mainline you have two options ... 8. e4 transposing into a somewhat well known Isolated pawn position in the French (see Plaskett-Short British Team CH (NCL) 2000 or play the Colle like a true reversed Semi Slav with 8. dxc Bxp 9. b4! see Ghosh, Diptayan - Sankalp Gupta, if that appeals to you get a copy of David Rudel's book on Koltanowski DO NOT PLAY THE OLD MAIN LINES IN THE Nc6 var i.e. where you play Qe2 and push the pawn to e4 That line has or is close to being refuted! White's performance in that is abysmal!

There is a Sneaky Grunfeld line you must know about. There are several ways to deal with it.

Against the QID... I'll either play the pawn to c4 and go into the e3 lines or I play the Koltanowski pawn structure i.e. A46 Queen's pawn, Yusupov-Rubinstein system...

The KID... I've had great success playing the Semi Classical var... Most KID books don't cover those lines.. I'll dabble in the Classical KID lines also.

Master the Greek Gift, learn how how disguise it, learn as many bishop sacs on h7 and h6 as you can. Learn the Stonewall Attack also, often black will play a line that will shutdown a mainline but let you establish a knight at e5 and allow you to whip up the a stonewall attack. I'd recommend mastering the Stonewall Attack as an opening also (but that's for another thread)

All in all... The repertoire is a lot of fun to play. I'm a club player... at 58, I'm not going beyond being a Class A player. So I play what I want...

Spot on!

The London First recorded in my data base in 1856 (the oldest of the 4)

The Colle Zuckertort First recorded game in my data base was 1883

And what became the Colle Koltanowski First recorded game in my data base was 1890s

The Stonewall Attack First recorded game in my data base was 1890s

Because of the pawn formations they all have a lot in common. (one can pull attacking techniques from each of them and insert them into your opening attacking themes)

All of them when they first came out where played by the 2700s elo of those eras. IMHO those Classical games are straight up art... things of wonder, awe and beauty. You really see the genius of those players when they played these openings. Master's like Pillsbury, Lasker, Breyer, Mason, Marshall Blackburn, Burn, Marcozy, Alpine, Showwalter, Mieses, Hodges... all the pre WWI players... Then a whole new crop of players who played these openings Sultan Kahn, Colle, Grunfeld, Alekhine, Rubinstien, Capablanca, Janowski, Euwe, Yates, Marcozy, Bogoljubov, etc...

IMO modern players suck compared to the Chess these guys played!