Why do some people make fun of the London system?

Hello, I started using the London after seeing it in one of Gotham Chess' courses. Since then, I've seen memes and comments in his twitch chat making fun of London players.

What's with the hate?

T Swift shake it off

One reason I suspect is that it's been heavily promoted by Chess youtubers like Eric Rosen. And people tend to view London System players as simply copying their favorite YouTuber, as a casual. 

Everyone seems a Stafford Gambit expert now too.

I SWEAR, I love it cuz i've studied the refutation. Easy rating points. 

It is considered boring, dry, and repetitive compared to other opening choices. Though playing it basically guarantees that you get to the middle game without completely blowing up

 

Many people say it always ends in draws, all games play through the same, etc... You also make the same moves every game you use the opening, unlike others which require enough knowledge to choose a specific variation based on your opponent's response. A good choice for beginners, but as you become more advanced, try other openings for more interesting and exciting games.

Let me take you by the hand, and lead you through the streets of London, I'll show you something, to make you change your mind... The general hate is because it's nonsense proof. Imagine you spent ages studying tricky, trappy, gambits, or some come-and-get-me theory heavy set-up defence, and the white player just calmly sets up in a super solid structure, without getting over-extended, and says 'Yep. Really impressive, or whatever... shall we skip straight to the middlegame now?' Better players hate it because the same thing applies to a lot of their advantage of experience. Apparently, a whole bunch of effort goes into avoiding 'playing chess.' Seems it's 'boring.' People want to win in ten moves is all. 1d4!

As noted above, it's a really good foundational training to play most 1d4 openings. London shapes often arise mid-game in other 1d4 openings. I played Queen's Gambit for ages. Turns out when you play that, suddenly everyone WANTS to play slow grindy games... Come on... let me take your rook, that's exciting... No???

Ima get another serve from Nicolai, in a sec, aren't I...

Doesn't matter, if you like it keep playing it. Its up to your opponents to find ways to face whatever openings their opponents play. If some people sneer at the London then presumably they think there's something wrong with it, therefore they can find ways to beat it so it's all easy wins, so they shouldn't complain really.

Because it s  not dynamic absolutely good for beginner but u should not play it after 1200 elo as it's lacks dynamic and it never let you feel the position u play same move for any response by black and soon your dynamics skillsbof analyzimg and playing accordingly would be dead

I know magnus played it but only for few games and super gm plays it when they want that much complicated games and magnus prefers ruy lopez and Italian or queen gambit or London as every move will teach you analyzing the position as your whole position can be falled apart even if you don't make a blunder but 2 or 3 inaccuracies or mistake

Sometimes one just exaggerates a bit for the laughs. But I don't think the London is good for beginners anyway. As a beginner is good to face all those traps, and play those gambits and crazy tactics you can find in open games, imo. 

Yes

People consider it boring because white in many cases ends up playing the same 5-10 moves, whatever black does. 

London System is in general a legitimate opening, but there is one simple problem for novice players playing it, which is why it shouldn't be recommended for improving players.

As I've stated, in almost every game white will play d4, Bf4, Nf3, e3, c3, Nd2, Bd3, 0-0.  If for instance OP play London System as white in every game, he will pretty much play a similar game 50% of the time (every time he plays with white pieces). This will not give you experience in many different positions, many different pawn structures, which is important for a novice player if he wishes to improve.

London system is (in most cases) a crutch for a novice player. They play the same thing over and over in order not to feel lost in the opening, which is a mistake. You should feel uncomfortable, and lose some games due to an opening mistake, then learn from those mistakes and become better.

On top of it all, if white wishes to change what he plays with white after a while, especially after getting to some intermediate rating, he will pretty much have to change the entire repertoire with white pieces, and the transition will be rough.

So if Magnus plays it, it is fine, because he plays pretty much any opening in the book, but playing it exclusively because you feel comfortable, is not that great for an improving player.
 

I used to play it some months ago and I decided that it's better to switch to Queen's Gambit. London System is a solid opening but I found it repetitive. Unlike some users, I think that London isn't the best choice for beginners. You don't need to know a lot of theory when you're playing this opening, but you're getting dry games where you have to follow the same pattern.

Every 3 of 4 London players are just trying to make their "triangle" setup and usually don't pay attention to their opponent's actions. This may be a reason for making fun of 2.Bf4 apologists.

I think part of it is because it’s a system that you’re supposed to play against most black setups. And that just feels weird to play against, like, why should you be able to play the same opening moves against any setup that I throw against you?

And part of it is that there aren’t really set lines against it, so while white doesn’t have to do much thinking, black doesn’t have a set play of their own.

At least those were my personal frustrations. I ended up playing around with stockfish for a few hours and analyzing a few lines, memorized them, and now play them whenever I run against a London. I feel like I’ve had like 80% against it since I did that. At the very least, the lines I play push the game into sharp territory, which I feel like a London player does not appreciate.

Because you get the same position every time, and that’s just lame.

at least you can make things fun in the exchange French!

The London is hated because it's basically a cheat code for all beginners. All they have to do is put their pieces out the same way every time to get a dry, boring position. That's why you gotta start with 1. e4!

Reverse Philidor intensifies lol