London System
Opening course for White · ECO D02
The bishop leaves first, the knight lands on e5, and the plans repeat.
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.
- Chapters
- 5
- Lines
- 17
- Traps
- 6
- Sources
- 4
Nothing to review. Learn the next line.
Next: The reversed Stonewall attack, against 3...e6 with ...Bd6 and ...Re8.
Part of your daily work.
- Learn
- Walk the line with the coach, a note on the moves that need one.
- Recall
- Play it from memory. Learned lines come back on a schedule.
- Tempo
- The same line against the clock, for a score to beat.
- Off book
- The opponent leaves the book with a real move; Stockfish prices your answers.
Before the moves: the big ideas
The bishop gets out first
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.
Stop ...e6-e5 and e5 is yours
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.
b2 is what the bishop costs
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.
Bd3 attacks, Be2 waits
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.
The lines, chapter by chapter
In learning order. The coach serves review one line a day; open any line yourself when you want it now.
The Classical: ...d5, ...e6 and ...Bd6
5 lines
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
against the natural 10...Nd7 in the f4 position · 15 moves
New
Bb5 and the Trade on g3
2 lines
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.
The b2 Pawn
5 lines
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.
Against the Fianchetto
3 lines
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.
The Other Setups
2 lines
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.
Puzzles from this opening
The London System in brief
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
- The reversed Stonewall attack against 3...e6 with ...Bd6 and ...Re8
- The h7 sacrifice you will actually get against the natural 10...Nd7 in the f4 position
- Black pushes on the queenside against 10...c4 and a pawn storm
- The Greek gift with no knight on f3 against 9...Nd7 and a natural recapture
- The free pawn against the common 7...Qc7
- Black trades on g3 at once against 6...Bd6 and 7...Bxg3
- The Bb5 version against 7...O-O
- Na3 and the c4 square against 2...c5 and 3...Qb6
- Taking the e-pawn against 7...Nxe4
- Taking on b2 against 4.Nc3 Qxb2
- Taking the bishop instead against 6...Nxf4
- Defending c7 with the knight against 5...Na6
- The main setup against ...g6 and ...d6 with ...b6
- Bh2 before castling against ...d6 and ...Nbd7 aiming at ...e5
- The premature ...e5 against ...Re8 and an early ...e5
- Against ...Bf5, play c4 against 3...Bf5
- The Apeldoorn ...f6 against 2...c5 with an early ...f6
Theory credited to
- The London System in 12 LessonsFM Oscar de Prado Rodriguez
- The Agile London SystemAlfonso Romero Holmes and Oscar de Prado
- Opening Repertoire: London SystemIM Cyrus Lakdawala
- Fighting the London SystemGM Kiril Georgiev
7 branches are deliberately not drilled here, and the course records which and why rather than leaving the gap silent.
Questions
- What is the London System?
- The London System is the chess opening that begins 1.d4 d5 2.Bf4 Nf6 3.e3 e6, filed under ECO D02. The bishop leaves first, the knight lands on e5, and the plans repeat. 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.
- How do you learn the London System?
- This course splits it into 17 drills across 5 chapters. You play each line from White's side against a coach note that explains the move, then the same lines come back on a spaced-repetition schedule until you can play them without prompting. Every position is verified with Stockfish at depth 20 before it ships.
- Where does the theory in this London System course come from?
- From published work by FM Oscar de Prado Rodriguez, Alfonso Romero Holmes and Oscar de Prado, IM Cyrus Lakdawala, GM Kiril Georgiev and the reference sources credited on this page. The engine verifies the moves; the plans and assessments belong to the authors, and every drill records the page or section it came from.