An opening course for White (ECO D02)
1.d4 and 2.Bf4: the queen's bishop steps outside the pawn chain before e3 shuts it in, and White then builds almost the same house against almost anything. Pawns on d4, e3 and c3, knights to f3 and d2, the other bishop to d3 or e2, h3 when the retreat square is wanted, castle, knight to e5. It relies on schemes rather than long lines of theory, so it costs little to learn and keeps turning up in world championship rapid play. It is also not the harmless system its reputation claims: the same setup produces a bishop sacrifice on h7, an h4-h5 storm and a reversed Stonewall attack. The two places Black really tests you are an early ...Qb6 against b2 and a kingside fianchetto, and most of this course sits there.
This course is part of your daily work.
In most 1.d4 openings the c1-bishop spends ten moves behind its own e3 pawn. Bf4 on move two settles that before it becomes a problem, and the rest of the setup is arranged to keep the bishop working: h3 so it can drop to h2, the recapture on g3 when Black trades it off, and c3 rather than Nc3 so d4 has a pawn behind it. Treat the trade of that bishop as a concession rather than an even swap.
In the ...d5 and ...e6 systems Black's freeing move is ...e6-e5, and allowing it usually hands over the equality you were playing against. The answer is a knight to e5 first, propped by d4 and often followed by f4. The resulting formation is a Stonewall with colours reversed, except that White's dark-squared bishop sits outside the chain on g3 instead of buried behind e3.
Bf4 takes the only piece that ever guarded b2 off the square, so ...Qb6 arrives early and often. Choosing between defending the pawn and handing it over is the one piece of concrete theory this opening really asks of you. After 1.d4 Nf6 2.Bf4 c5 3.e3 Qb6 the knight belongs on a3, not c3, because once Black spends a move on ...a6 it swings to c4 and hits the queen.
Against a black king still sitting behind a pawn on h7, the bishop belongs on d3 with the queen coming to f3, h5 or c2 behind it. Against a fianchetto the pawn on g6 shuts the same diagonal, so the bishop takes the modest square e2, a4 holds b5, and the knight heads for c4 instead. Picking the wrong one of those two is how the London goes flat.
Learning order, one scoresheet per chapter. The coach serves review one line a day; enter any line directly when you want it now.
Black plays the position like a Queen's Gambit Declined and fights for e5 with ...Bd6. This is the most common thing you will meet, so the whole plan is here: retreat to g3, put the knight on e5 before ...e6-e5 happens, and go at the king with f4 and h4.
The h7 sacrifice you will actually gettrap
vs the natural 10...Nd7 in the f4 position, 15 moves
Two things change the character of the classical lines: Black taking on g3 early, and White answering ...Nc6 with Bb5 instead of Bd3. Both come down to the same question, which is whether Black ever gets to play ...e6-e5.
Bf4 leaves b2 with nothing behind it, and every strong player knows it. Against ...Qb6 there is a right knight move, a queen trap worth memorising, and three ways for Black to lose the queen outright.
Once Black plays ...g6 the pawn shuts the b1-h7 diagonal, so the bishop takes e2 and the play goes to the other side. The moves that matter are h3, Bh2 and a4, and the punishment comes when Black plays ...e5 without preparing it.
Two more things Black does often enough to prepare: developing the bishop to f5 before ...e6, and the modern ...f6 line that sidesteps the whole system. Both need a different pawn move from White.
Club games that started in the London System produced these tactics, and you solve every one from White's side, the seat you actually sit in. Difficulty follows your solving, the same as the puzzle room.
The London System is the chess opening that begins 1.d4 d5 2.Bf4 Nf6 3.e3 e6, and it is filed under ECO D02. This course teaches it from White's side in 17 drills across 5 chapters, with a coach note on the moves that need one, every position checked with Stockfish at depth 20, and every plan credited to the author who wrote it down.
Lines you will drill
Theory credited to
7 branches are deliberately not drilled here, and the course records which and why rather than leaving the gap silent.
Questions
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