London System Refutation: The Padhi Attack!

Hello everyone!

This will be an article on the london system, or more precisely - a refutation of it! For those not familiar with the opening, white plays d4 Bf4 e3 c3 Nf3 Nbd2 Bd3 and h3 almost every time against anything black may try, giving him a solid position with no weaknesses.

I must admit - Playing the black side of the london system is very boring as there is no way to attack white's extremely solid position. Even if white simply plays the typical moves in the London System, at worst, he will get a strategically worse position, not something an aggressive player wants to play versus!

However, a good friend of mine - Micah Smith - has played the London for many more years than me, plays ONLY the London as white, and is famous for being "impossible to beat" with black. (He also has some "impossible to beat" openings as black too, but that will be the topic of another article!)  Initially, when I played Micah in blitz, I would try something unique that aims to prevent white's plans with 1. d6 or 1.g6

At this point, I figured that these "creative" moves will not work, and that I had to play something normal and accept that I will have to play a boring playless position.

I was happy to know that I was not the only one finding it difficult to beat Micah's london, as my brother - for one example - also has tried creative ideas just like me -  with no success..

Luckily for us, a young boy with the name of "Padhi" bravely challenged the great Micah Smith to a game of bullet with black. Everyone expected this young guy to be beaten quickly by the old and experienced "Mitch" Smith, probably by an opening where he has played thousands of times! 

What a game! Little Padhi later played Micah another game, with a similar victory!

These games gave me a lot of motivation to play Micah myself with the Padhi attack. Surprisingly, I beat Micah EVERY SINGLE TIME! :D

Thanks to Padhi's strong new invention, we no longer fear the Great Mitch and his London system! It must be noted that such an idea (h6, g5, Rg8) can also be played vs the  Bg5 lines too!

I hope you enjoyed these games, and hopefully you can also beat your opponents in the London! 

(Padhi's account is FlipExtremee here ;) )

Thanks for reading! 

- Sam