in today's ten-minute opening video I'm going to
teach you how to play the London system which has a little bit of a bad reputation in the sense
that since you kind of play it the same way all the time folks are called lazy and boring
sometimes but we're gonna get rid of all those opinions today and I'll show you how to really
put some pressure on your opponents early on depending on how they setup so after d4 we've got
to pay attention to how our opponents are setting up their pieces most commonly you will face this
move d5 and then you should play Bishop f4 and we're gonna get started with a London from there
but obviously you also have to deal with King's Indian and other setups which we will cover in
the London with d5 on the board you've got to always be monitoring whether or not the C pawn
comes forward whether the opponent moves out the LightSquared Bishop early or whether you're
the opponent blocks in the LightSquared Bishop and so on and so forth also if you are offered
a trade of dark-squared bishop after Knight f6 you will play the next move III you are delaying
Knight f3 and I will tell you for a good reason you are delaying Knight f3 okay keep that in mind
notice that I have not played Knight f3 yet let's say the opponent does not challenge us with c5
just yet plays a six now we continue with Knight f3 Bishop d6 this Bishop trade I recommend sliding
the Bishop back once Square almost always and that is because the capture here will allow us to open
up the H file for the rook and maybe we'll even postpone castling so this trade that this this
little slide back technique is perfectly fine let's say castles Bishop d3 knight c6 now against
knight c6 you may want to complete your little pyramid of pawns here before you get this Knight
out to d2 just so the opponent cannot play Knight before so keep in mind c3 always a useful move
Knight d2 and let's say something like we need 7 okay a queen e7 is an important move to keep to
remember and just in general any move that allows the opponent to play the move e5 this is the
million dollar square in the London and you do not want your opponent to be pushing the e pawn there
successfully if they are able to do that they get an equal position okay and we're gonna try to
shut that down by hopping into e5 at the right moment supported by the pawn the bishop and maybe
stone style with the F pawn right after so we have that lock on the center if you see e5 coming you
need to put your knight there now just playing a random move for black and getting to this position
from here you can begin active operations on the King side how do you do that well after you hop
in here you're gonna try to play f4 now if the opponent had already done something like this
and force their Knight back this is perfectly fine for you because you already have Queen
h5 coming maybe you're launching forward the F pawn or even a simple pawn trade in the center
to get your knight in the game and another piece attacking on the King side so all different ideas
queen h5 Queen f3 Queen h3 in certain positions not this one obviously with the bishop on g3 but
these are all the different attacking ideas when you get the knight in the center in the London
against the castle King f4 trying to bring the Queen to this side maybe the bishop comes out this
way as well you have to build your experience in these positions now one thing that did not happen
early on in this setup is black never played c5 so let's take a look at what happens when black does
play c5 all right against c5 obvi I'm in black and plays c5 on the second move III is always always
good and I would recommend just continuing our natural development with 92 c3 and so on now early
Queen b6 stuff to attack the b2 pawn can be a little bit scary but there is a very cool tactical
way to take care of this and that move is actually Knight to c3 you should look at this early Knight
c3 stuff against c5 very tricky and taking on b2 is simply too dangerous because you play Knight
d5 you have night c7 coming and there's ways that this Queen can just simply get trapped on a –
for example there's one cap continuation here like this where you take the knight and then get
the knight on c7 excuse me and take the rook on a this is actually these positions are are simply
devastating for the black side so Queen b6 can be met with an early night c3 and if our opponent
does not take on b2 we simply play rugby 1 and this Queen has no positioning one more thing
I will add about an early night c3 Jill Bava London there is some venom in these early night
c3 systems you can consider adding them to your repertoire very tricky stuff once the opponent
commits the c-5 suddenly we do this and if they play something like a six then witches develop
naturally Knight f3 Bishop e2 Queen d2 even try to Castle queenside that is just one option but
you don't need to play like this you can just play Knights who have three and develop naturally and
continue to go for that setup with 92 c3 and so on it is considered the more modern approach right
now in the London to not play a very early c3 so right here play Knight d2 before you play C 3 that
way when the Queen comes out you can always play rugby 1 and there's even some D takes c5 venom
systems ok so don't be worried about an early c5 don't take just continue to develop and reinforce
your center against the early LightSquared Bishop movement systems what I like to do is actually
switch it up into a Queen's Gambit I like to play c4 and that allows me to bring my Queen out and
put some pressure on the newly weakened b7 pawn so Bishop comes out here c4 and Knight c3 with
Queen b3 coming and some Queen side pressure since the bishop abandoned the b7 pawn so depending on
how your opponent is setting up in the beginning there's gonna be pluses and minuses with with
all the different stuff now you know if they don't play d5 early on but they play something
like Knight f6 you should continue to play Bishop f4 and now we're gonna look at Kings Indian so
against g6 systems I always recommend Knight c3 this is really gonna throw people off because if
they continue with Kings Indian suddenly they're in appearance defense you've played efore and
you're gonna play a quick Queen d2 Bishop h6 long castles this is not what a King's Indian player
wants to get from the opening to get move ordered into this very aggressive system not to mention
one where you know you're gonna be playing things like f3 g4 h4 h5 to get to their to their king and
if the opponent plays d5 there's one very exciting system here so d5 preventing e4 you play e3 if
they play Bishop g7 you play the amazing move h4 I highly recommend you go look at this position in
the database a lot of super super strong GM's play this live on Aronian to name one I think Maxine
Bechet lagravis played this wouldn't be surprised if Magnus Carlsen has given this a shot and this
is the idea if castles you just play h5 and then you sacrifice your rook and get a devastating
attack along the H file on the opponent this position at a deep enough engine depth is just is
loss for black black cannot survive this position so most players with the black pieces will play
h5 to prevent you from playing h5 but then you develop normally you put a knight on in on e5 you
can play your Bishop to d3 target these pawns try to create a king side pawn storm and obviously you
will try to Castle queenside so against any sort of Indian system the second you see the move
g6 highly recommend Knight c3 and going for a long castles I did tell you we're not just lazily
developing our pieces in this London setup we're gonna try to put pressure on our opponents and I
should say you can do it even here like let's say I play g6 alright Knight c3 Knight c3 g6 Knight c3
and try to play h4 h5 so investigate this system I think it will be very useful for you the only
other thing that I can you know I can really think about is very early c5 stuff now for example d4
Knight f6 Bishop f4 c5 in general the best thing to do here is just to play the d5 central push
because you know if you play e3 there's some positions where black does not need to play d5
and that can be a little bit annoying so d4 I recommend this I hear there is a gambit called
the V gun yawn gambit Knight c3 Queen takes b2 and Bishop back to d2 it's the poisoned pawn so I
know you've developed to Tempe but your next moves are gonna be for F for overwhelming your opponent
in the center the vog Anyang gambit named after Raphael Vogon young Armenian Grandmaster from back
in the day and if R if your opponent doesn't play like this you know just plays d6 again we're
going for the same stuff Knight c3 e4 Queen d2 and some sort of long castles ah you know d4 c5
the same thing you can play d5 and you know you can set up with the bishop on f4 all the same
against you know the Dutch for example you can play the Staunton gambit very aggressive gambit
or you can play the London all the same but you would need to probably Castle queenside against
the Dutch systems or try to attack this pawn with f3 e4 setups in the future but for the most part
that's that's as good of a breakdown that I can give you you know in in about 10 minutes for the
London system you will get some garbage sometimes like this you know knight c6 and then III f6
trying to take you know the center with E 5 no early f6 system is good against the London but
you know obviously London players you you should be familiar with how to take advantage of nonsense
play like this I would just play aggressively like h4 g4 and then maybe 92 and then develop normally
again systems where your opponent does not develop a lot of pieces try to open the center as quickly
as possible so something with E for maybe C for quick development and don't just lazily develop
your pieces to the squares that you think they belong if you're a beginner and you've gotten to
this you know point in the video you can obviously play the London in a bit more calm fashion not
trying to punish the opponent but if you're a 15 16 1700 rated player the London is still great and
if you don't play it in a lazy way you really try to punish opponents and challenge them depending
on which way they set up with this Knight c3 stuff is h4 h5 stuff or this aggressive you know 95
an attacking system the London will actually be a lot of fun and it won't be boring at all so
that's basically how you play the London in about 10 minutes let me know your thoughts or questions
about the London system in the comments below and today's chat question is let me know where
you're watching from in the world what city are you currently in and well I look forward to
your answers and I'll see you in the next video
