Beat The London System! || Learn The Ultimate Defense

hello everyone and welcome to one of the most important if not the most important days in your life uh because i'm going to show you how to play against the london system so you might have started a lot a lot of openings with black against the white's d4 ideas you might have studied the benoni the bank we might have studied the king's indian might have studied the slav some traditional lines of the queen's gambit declined and then white just uh you know you go online you play a blitz game and white just goes d for bishop to f4 e3 knight f3 and you have no idea what to do and the white just crushes you every time uh or or you know maybe not every time but most of the times and you you're wondering uh what is this system in the how do i play against it and whenever you hear someone talk about the london system they say ah it's uh yeah nothing serious for white uh even if you remember uh uh in the last years the world the blitz championship magnus cross and defeated the former world champion vladimir kramnik with the london system and kramnik said add a london system it's uh you know it's nothing but but magnus is just magnus so white doesn't really get some sort of a big advantage out of the opening but um he has a very natural way of developing pieces and this is something that i was trying to find a way at least at the counter right from the start and i've done i've done so by uh checking out the the database regarding all of the games that were played and i was able to find one specific line uh that's incredibly forcing and it really uh well it forces white to make some very very uh well not not so great decisions for for him so uh to show you exactly what i mean let's just start and see what's happening so white will open with d4 if we're talking about the london system sorry about that uh and this is how you will approach it you will go knight to f6 white will of course go bishop to f4 he wants to get his london setup and you will immediately strike in the center with c5 and now white will go e3 if white uh goes for this d5 idea that's really not another problem you're just gonna play d6 and after c4 e5 and you are very happy with your position if the bishop moves you can even grab more space with e4 or if white captures alpha song uh you're just going to play bishop captures and you already developed your light square bishop got him into the game and you're going to have a very very pleasant uh position because you you really have no more weaknesses once you've developed your light square bishop so we're not going to discuss the d5 all that much so knight f6 c5 we're going to play e3 this is what white will go for like 95 percent of the times and this is how we will go about this queen to b6 already going after that b2 pawn and just a nice early queen development now it's usually against chess principles to bring your queen early into the game but there are openings that are tailored just uh in that direction like for example for example one of my favorite defenses with black is the scandinavian defense where you immediately bring the queen into the game and you can get a lot of very very interesting positions so this position has been has not been reached very many times but it has been reached by some incredibly strong players like fabiana korwana yani pomnishi vasily van chuk and i found the game baskaran adiman also played one game with the black pieces and it's a very very playable uh forcing line that uh just forces white to make some decisions so now you're already putting more pressure here and you're attacking the b pawn most of the times we will not be capturing the b pawn before we play a6 because it tends to be very dangerous as you'll see so here uh white just gonna continue developing knight to f3 or knight to c3 probably knight to c3 and here we will play a6 and this is the basis of our setup so uh we're gonna play knight f6 c5 queen to b6 and a6 and this is basically where our game begins uh so what can you do here uh instead of this a6 i'm just going to show what happens if queen captures on b2 because we said we're not going to do that knight to b5 is just very annoying because now you're already threatening knight to c7 with check and after you defended knight to d5 you can even go a3 and here white will be able to trap the black queen you will get some compensation for the queen but not a lot for example a6 rook to b1 queen to a2 and now you're just gonna play uh well white can either continue harassing your queen but uh probably uh white will try and trap the queen and after eight captures you're just going to play rook to a1 and now black has no other options but to capture the rook because the queen has no squares so here we would simply see captures and after capture so we will get to this position uh where white has a a a a queen but black has a rook and a piece for a queen so we're not going to be doing that after this knight the c3 move we are going to go a6 and this is the setup you want to remember because you will reach it most of the time so knight f6 uh c5 queen to b6 and a6 and now our position is great and here we're going to discuss three lines that uh are kind of most likely to occur but only one is let's say a series attempt for white so here white could go a3 white could go rook to b1 or white could just continue his development with the knight to f3 so let's see what happens if we just go a3 so here uh white is inviting you to go for queen captures on b2 but we are not going to be doing that so to make this um a whole course sort of a course i'm not saying this is of course this is just an idea you can use in your games uh pretty much all of our lines will start with c captures on d4 just to make it easier for you to enjoy these setups e captures on d4 and now d5 we prepared to bring our bishop into the game and only then uh we are interested in closing up the structure with e6 so here probably you will get knights the a4 going after the queen but now comes a move you have to remember queen to a7 looks weird putting your queen here but our idea is that we want to keep attacking this pawn and we want to be able to further attack it with knight to c6 which will prevent the white from most of the usual ideas and now for example knight f3 we're going to go bishop to g4 sorry bishop to g4 and after bishop to e2 continuing development we're going to go knight to c6 and already we have a lot of pr we have a lot of pressure on this pawn here and now for example white can try the normal c3 we're gonna go e6 and the game continues or if white tries the more ambitious try knights the c5 we can just go e6 and after knight to b3 now the pawn is nicely defended by both the knights and the queen we can just continue development so here just to show you some optimal squares for your pieces castle's castles uh and now c3 so white is very happy with his setup but he can't really claim any advantage which is usually not all that great if you're white for example knight to e4 and now whatever white plays you will be able to trade down completely and enjoy a very comfortable end game because white it doesn't really have an active plan here uh if something like this then you can even go this but more often than not you will see something like knight f2 d2 and here you just trade everything off bishop captures queen captures now you can either trade or even go queen b6 uh try to put some more pressure on the knight because now if the knight captures you can capture that for example captures uh and then queen captures on b3 but if let's say rook b1 tries to defend the pawn as the b file is now in danger uh rook f38 and now you will simply get all your pieces into the game if knight captures on e4 you're gonna capture on b3 knight to g3 and now knight the a5 going after knight to c5 and black will have a very pleasant game so this is one of the uh one of the lines that can actually end uh very abruptly for example white can choose to go for some sort of an attack with knight a5 but this is not just a force to draw and uh if white chooses to do so then there is nothing much for for you to do but you know okay he played with the white pieces he insists on a draw that's fine because white is going for something like queen g4 but after g6 you're gonna get uh this very nice queen to e5 with the idea of just bishop h6 and delivering checkmate but now after this it's just going to be a a draw by perpetual uh repetition i'll draw by repetition because the white is down material and there's no way to finish the attack for example check you're just going to move check you're going to move and that's just it so uh this is what happens after a move like a3 is played after our initial setup so a6 and a3 so not very ambitious for white but it is possible and you should know how to uh how to approach it and where to put your pieces another try is rook to b1 saying okay i'm not interested in giving up the b-pawn and depending on what what level you're you're playing at uh people might or might not defend this pawn but even if they do we're just going to continue in the same fashion we're always going to capture this pawn captures characters and now play d5 again with the idea of developing our bishop and then playing e6 so here uh the the difference is if knight's the a4 here you can just go queen c6 now this is a bit different because the knight is under attack and the bishop f5 will be very annoying so here basically knight for just wastes a tempo because if knight c3 bishop f5 and black just got a free move in so instead after d5 we're going to continue developing as that's what you should always do knight f3 now bishop f5 black has some very casual developing moves the bishop d3 you can even trade here captures capture z6 close down this position and after castles bishop to e7 and again you have a very very normal way of developing your pieces uh for example rook after e1 you're gonna castle and after now let's say knight the e5 uh usually knight to e5 is something that is really annoying for black in most of the lines but here the problem is always this um this pressure on the on the d4 pawn because here if you go knight to the e5 you can immediately go knight to c6 and now there's pressure on the pawn here and not much for black to do but for white to do about it if you go knights to e2 then queen b5 and black is having an amazing position if the queens get traded off then this pawn is hanging a3 you're gonna go knight to e4 and black's position is is great for example f3 knight d6 you're going after the c4 square uh you cannot play b3 the a3 pawn will be hanging so here we would probably see a set of traits captures captures captures captures or something in along those lines and black will have a very comfortable end game so this is what i wanted to show you that in this line [Music] some of the most popular replies from white are not not all that impressive and the black can actually get a very comfortable position out of all of them so a3 rook to b1 moves you don't have to worry about and then there's knight to f3 which is the most normal way to continue the game because white is not interested in playing for some material equality white usually when you play the london you want to play aggressive you wanna even without castling you wanna maybe play king f1 start pushing the h pawn uh but this is also a line that kinda kind of forces white to to make some decisions and not be able to go for that right away but okay if knight f3 we just continue e6 now we're gonna continue our development and now bishop to e2 again the seemingly aggressive bishop to d3 does not work here because you just captured the pawn and after pawn captures queen captures comes with an attack on the knight and it's just a very nice pawn grab if knight a4 queen to be for check c3 now defending and blocking this check uh queen to a5 and it's uh it's a nice position for black you are you are behind in development but white will not be able to take advantage of that for example if castles you're gonna go d5 and now if rook to b1 trying to get to that b6 square just knight f to d7 you guard it and you prepare b5 so not much for you to do and the white doesn't seem to have a clear way of not a clear way a way at all of taking advantage of any of this for example if knight b2 you're going to go bishop to a3 just develop you can even trade trade this bishop for a night and here you're just going to castle and enjoy your position being up upon with without a single worry in the world for example if c4 white trying to open up some lines you can simply trade captures captures captures captures and now just castles and that's it you're playing b5 bishop to b7 rook to c8 you have a great position you're up upon you're really enjoying life so here white might block b5 with a4 but it's not a problem knight b6 goes after the bishop and the double attack on the pawn here bishop b3 now you just shift the knight here attack the bishop bishop to d2 attacks queen queen to d8 and now after knight to e5 let's say now you're gonna play b6 and your position is once again outstanding you're gonna play bishop to b7 once again rook to c8 and so on for example bishop c2 bishop b7 and if let's say queen f3 rook the c8 and you have finished your development uh without much problem being up a pawn and you can just you know play this any way you like and yes black does white does have this uh very strong bishop pair but you don't have to worry about the knight on f6 is an amazing defender and there's also the knight on d5 that defends the knight on f6 so there is no way for white to put any extra pressure you have an amazing bishop here going through through this entire diagonal and you can just play normal developing moves and you have you have a great position so this is what some of the things that that can happen if white tries to be over aggressive so white has to play the seemingly more passive bishop to e2 but now again we always capture on the four captures queen captures and now we are going to grab the pawn uh queen captures here on b2 and this is a pretty dangerous line but i'm going to show you some of the lines that um allow black to capture this so here white's main idea is knight to d5 but we are going to discuss this a bit later on because first i want to show you what happens if castles if castles it seems like this pawn grab is a bit too much because white has all of the pieces developed you only have a queen here the queen can easily be chased away however you have a very forcing knight to c6 now you attack the white queen and the white queen has to be very careful already if a move like queen to d2 is played just bishop to b4 and that's it white white is just losing this game uh it seems like white might be able to play knight a4 and try to trade off queens but just queen a3 again attacking the knight and the queen and if c3 just bishop goes here and now everything is hanging the bishop is hanging the c3 pawn is saying if the knight moves knight is coming to e4 with a double attack just a terrible position for white so things can go wrong for white very easily here so after knight to c6 we will most likely not see queen to d2 but you never know uh because white might think queen d3 knight before okay i'm not playing that i'm just gonna go here and then he runs into bishop to b4 you know it's possible but okay we're going to discuss the series queen to d3 now of course knight b4 with a double attack here queen to d4 and this is where our fun starts so here it seems like you can go for the knight captures on c2 fork uh and in fact you can but uh i'm gonna show you why not to go for it because after knight captures on c2 queen to d2 uh and there's no way for you to move the knight a rook is coming or rather the other rook is coming and you will lose the piece here and even if you try the forcing bishop to be for line now bishop to e5 just defends it and if bishop captures bishop captures in knight e4 again with a double attack then just captures captures and after uh sorry knight captures on the two knight captures on a1 first bishop captures on g7 going after that rook and after rook attacks the bishop captures here and this is just a straight out winning position for white white has a bishop and a knight for a rook and you will not be able to play this so do not go after that if you're not uh you know do not go after that so uh we are planning to capture the c2 pawn but not not just yet so after this queen to d4 comes a move you should remember that's queen to a3 so just move the queen and now you are threatening this uh and here we will have the knight to e5 move and knight to e5 is very very dangerous because it threatens knight to c4 which could trap your queen but this is why we play such lines against the london the early queen development and we have to make white go for our queen but white can never capture our queen that's that's the idea and here now you can go for the greedy knight captures on c2 and i will show you what happens if you go for it but maybe there's a better idea here you would get queen to d2 now attacking the knight and after knight captures on a1 now knight to c4 challenging the queen and also you have now a lot of pressure on that v6 square and after the queen moves now comes knight to d6 chick and now the bishop has to capture it bishop captures bishop captures attacks the queen and now white just has a very very strong grip on the position it's not winning for white or anything black might be even better here for example 94 you offer a queen trade and if knight captures queen captures queen to c3 uh goes after the g7 pawn so a very forcing line king rook to g1 and now the very sorry uh first queen to g6 maybe even better than rook to g8 and now we're going to play rook the c1 going after this checkmate queen captures bishop rook captures and then rook delivers checkmate because the bishop is controlling this diagonal but black can play f6 and this is one of the one of the cases where f6 is in fact the best move and now black has some good squares and while black is up in material it doesn't look to be all that that of a impressive position for example queen captures here you're gonna play king f7 and yes you are up material you're up the exchange and you are up uh two pawns but uh i mean it's so hard to get any of your pieces into the game uh of course you can play this but it's not for everyone uh maybe you know maybe a bit more activity is preferred to to material here so we're gonna get back to that position where knight the e5 was played while we can capture on c2 we have the very very efficient knight after d5 and now you have no more worries in in the entire world you're going after that c3 knight and white simply must react to this for example knight captures here you're gonna capture on d5 with the knight and now there are no more no more serious threats here you're just enjoying your position uh maybe move the bishop the bishop is under attack you can go bishop g3 i will however show what happens if bishop to h5 it looks incredibly unpleasant but still you have to feel very comfortable in this position because this is actually good for black you don't want to play g6 and open up this diagonal you're going to run into a lot of trouble but what you will do here is go bishop c5 attack white's queen and if queen bishop captures an f7 you cannot capture with the knight because the queen hangs so bishop captures on f7 you're gonna move the king and now you're gonna ask white okay what is happening with your attack is there even an attack happening here your queen is under attack and once the queen moves now just remove the defender of the bishop and you will say thank you for the peace so here we'll probably see something like bishop captures an e6 uh knight the knight is now under attack so knight to f6 attacks the queen queen to f5 uh getting the queen somewhere to help out with the attack but now bishop captures queen captures and finally the most important uh capturing of the piece d captures an e5 bishop captures now with some pressure on the knight here so just rook to e8 attacks the queen queen to f5 again with some nasty uh pressure here but just bishop to e7 and black is perfectly fine now it seems like you're able to do something but uh make no mistake white is down in the entire piece here so this is very very uh difficult to play and the white doesn't have a clear way of breaking through here if we're okay to b1 you're going to play b5 you're not going to allow this rook into the game and now it seems like it's kind of difficult to uh to defend against this and make use of your extra piece but there are a few ways you could go here and try to try and trade off the queens like this you could capture here go here then go here so a lot a lot of possibilities even maybe moves like pushing the h pawn and then going rook to a5 going after the queen so you have to you have to test it and see what works best for you but uh just wanted to show you that although white will always be able to attack if you feel comfortable and you know the the intricacies of the position you will be able to defend and it's gonna be it's gonna be a great victory for you you know maybe uh but okay uh just uh what i wanted to show you after this queen captures on b2 what happens if white decides to just castle and say let's let's brawl it out but the most important and the most dangerous line is the next one and that is knight to d5 white defends the rook with the queen but also offers an early queen trade and also threatens knight the c7 check so here what would happen is we have to capture the queen so here we trade queens captures and then white has this fish and so uh knight the c7 with check going after the king and the in the rook here king to d8 and now of course you have to recapture the queen now of course our rook is hanging so we have to play rook to a7 and now white wins back his pawn with knight c captures on e6 grabs the pawn and eliminates the knight here that's now undefended due to rook to a7 so here we're going to play d captures an e6 you usually want to capture towards the center but this would just uh we would get three pawn islands in the position and that's not very good two-point islands are better than three unless it's uh you know working by force you usually don't want to mess up your pawn structure so d captures on e6 bishop captures on v8 rook to a8 and now you're you have to move the bishop bishop somewhere let's say bishop to g3 and now you continue development bishop to b for check king to f1 there's no no better move and now you're gonna go knight to e4 you're gonna try and eliminate this bishop because white's bishop pair it will be very strong if you don't react very early on so i suggest doing something like this and after let's say knight b3 you're gonna capture on g3h captures and go king to e7 and again it seems like a very weird position for black to play because it seems like white has some very natural moves whereas black doesn't but if you know what you're doing this is perfectly fine and now i'm going to show you how to uh how to set your pieces up optimally and for those of you if you're maybe wondering if how do i know all this why am i even talking about such things uh i've i've done the research i've uh you know browsed the database i've seen what what you know people play at the top level and what works what doesn't end i've analyzed everything with the engine uh the most important crucial lines i've left the engine to crunch the numbers at around the depth 40. so if you if you usually analyze lines in a in a depth you know the higher than depth 40 then uh again i will say this chances are you are not watching my videos but if you're a casual player at this will be this will be more than more than sufficient so uh all right now let's see let's see some developing moves rook to b1 uh putting the rook on a nice semi open b file we're gonna go rook to b8 uh rook the h4 going after the bishop here bishop back to b6 and now let's say knight d2 going after our bishop here we're gonna play b5 this is how we're gonna get all of our pieces into the game and now uh like i said uh once black pushes d5 b5 white has the a and c pawn that you can use to trade off one of your isolated pawns so let's say c4 now we're going to go bishop to d7 and after let's say c captures on b5 a captures you're going to get knight the e4 going after the bishop but now bishop bishop to a3 and that's it you're gonna you're you're gonna have a lot of fun playing this you still have the bishop pair uh the position is very open and you know you you you have to enjoy the advantage of the bishop pair for example if rook to b3 you can even play b b4 go after the rook here just challenge it and it's going to be a very pleasant position let's say 92 you can even play rook to c8 you don't care about this pawn because this will be deadly for white and white really needs the white really needs to figure out how he will continue playing this position uh because uh although white's white was a bit more active when we entered the end game uh you see that there was actually nothing to worry about you can you can you you have time to place your pieces on optimal squares and you will be able to play this so now white is the one that will be struggling and pretty much in all of the lines not pretty much in all of the lines that we've shown uh if you know what you're doing white will be struggling and it's just something that that is the case here so of course white will find many many ways to make your life miserable and uh just knowing this one line will not be and not be enough but it does show you that you can feel safe in any of the positions that arise and you will know that okay even though this is the position now uh i can find something because i know that i am safe in this position so you know it will further motivate you to look for better moves in in your positions so just to go over the line one more time uh we're just gonna show it once again and mention something that we've already mentioned just along the way so d4 knight to f6 and the once black white goes for bishop to f4 we go c5 that's what we do it because we set knight f6 c5 queen b6 and a6 uh we don't worry about d5 we already shown why why is that so e3 and now queen to b6 and now once white develops we're gonna play a6 and like i said this will be our basic setup we're gonna go knight to f3 white's maybe most serious attempt now e6 and now after bishop to e2 we're gonna go uh captures queen captures and of course queen captures on v2 so in the main line that we're discussing we actually captured the b2 pawn and now like we said white can choose to play a bit more aggressive with with castles white can play any move here now this is not the only move i can play rook to b one white can play h for y can play where i can play whatever white wants to play uh not right away h4 because the rook is hanging but uh uh there are different ways white can play this but uh uh i just wanted you to know that there is nothing to worry about regardless of what white plays you just have to know your way around the position so we will probably see something like knights here uh and then we go into the very very first line so what's beautiful about the uh all of these lines that i've shown is that they are force forcing lines and uh the lines that i've shown is where white makes the absolute best move so white needs to make the absolute best moves in all of these lines uh to always be a little bit worse if white doesn't play the best moves white will always be white will always be worse so here knight to d5 we're gonna go captures on d4 knight to c7 check and now everything like we said we're gonna go here recapture and then this rook to a7 and gets the rook out of the way captures on e6 captures uh white recaptures the piece and now like we said this could be very dangerous but since you know how to play this bishop to be for check some rapid development it's gonna be very fine for you king f1 now knight to e4 we want to eliminate white's bishop pair that's kind of what we're going for here uh and there's no way for white to avoid this if you try and save the bishop here there's always f6 g5 so you will win that pawn uh that bishop so let's say we said knights to b3 we're gonna exchange here white can play any other set of moves but your your basic idea of a setup is the same king is seven you want to get the rook into the game you don't want to castle or anything like that because uh well you've already moved your king obviously so rook to b1 like we said rook to b8 you're preparing to push this b pawn rook to h4 it's not a problem white has immense activity but there is nothing white can do to prevent you from activating your pieces if b5 c4 bishop to d7 and it's just a very enjoyable position captures captures and now after going after your bishop there's this bishop to a3 safe haven uh that will allow you to go for b4 and so on like we said very very tricky line uh so this is the mo this is a line that will never happen in your own games unless like i don't know i have no idea what what would have to align for this to happen in your own games but just to show you that uh all the scariest things that can happen cannot hurt you so like we said rook b3 b4 going after even bishop to h5 could be very scary at some point but knight d2 and now let's say rook c8 goes after rook to c1 and the black's position is just better period so yeah now we've covered a lot of uh some very interesting lines but uh that's what i wanted to create what i was basically trying to do i was trying to create something that i can use myself to uh play against the london system and i've tried it out a little bit against twenty one hundred twenty two hundred twenty three hundred players and it it works perfectly white never got uh uh even even close to a position as good as the positions i've shown here but of course when you face stronger players white will of course be more resilient find better ideas and so on and so on uh but know that your position is solid and that you know there's nothing bad that can happen if you don't mess up as usual uh so yeah this is the setup just remember this you have to have this mental image in your head always this is it so we're gonna go knight f6 c5 queen b6 a6 and that's it that's our setup against the london and we are going to uh enjoy this uh playing this uh very much so uh i i don't know i've never understood uh what a setup is actually the london system does the knight have to be on f3 for it to officially be the london system or is the bishop f4 e3 d4 setup already the london system so it's very vague but uh basically this is an anti-london setup not a setup against not a setup against the the london system but basically the anti-london so i guess it doesn't matter uh but yeah this is what we'll be playing and um yeah let me know how it goes if uh you will be having any more luck uh if you're if you enjoy extremely sharp positions uh and you know a lot of sacrifices everything like i do uh you might not find this opening idea that interesting but if you don't mind just trading off you know pieces queens and going for straight out into an end game with the black pieces with white having nothing then this is this is definitely something for you so that's the opening hope you guys enjoyed it let me know let me know how it goes uh always remember this setup it's not not very difficult to remember so you know let me know how it goes and will you uh be having more or less fun playing against the london after you've seen this video so maybe just go through the lines a few times because there's like five of them to remember and you don't have to remember all you know the big sausages of lines but you know maybe just uh uh the ideas ended a few moves behind them and then you will probably you know face some other moves but then you will have to prepare for those moves as well this is just a foundation to build upon but yeah okay enough said uh thank you thank you all for watching uh i would like to thank edward snellgrove derek king david kimura uh benjamin rosen and maximilian maher for your contribution to my channel thank you a lot i really appreciate it as usual you can check two of my previous videos here thank you for watching and i will see you soon continuing the coverage of the of the tata steel chess tournament checking up on your wonderful suggestions and uh whatever else happens in the chess world so thank you all i will see you soon and have an excellent rest of your day and destroy that london system once and for all

Channel: agadmator's Chess Channel

Views: 421,075

Keywords: agadmator, chess, best chess channel, best youtube chess channel, youtube chess, how to play against london system, beat the london system, london system defense

Id: 9homA3nEvto

Length: 32min 21sec (1941 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 29 2021