Anyone here fan of the Colle systems? I am reading Chernev's logical chess book (a great read btw) and I really enjoyed the Colle game near the beginning. I'm trying it out and having moderate success. Anyone else ever use this?

hey! i am a fan of the colle-zukertort. in it you play

d4, Nf3, e3, Bd3, Nbd2, b3, Bb2, Ne5, f4, g4, etc. i have won some nice games with it.

I play the Colle-Zukertort from time to time. Instead of e4, I usually go for a Ne5 move if the situation permits. One of the few times I've ever beaten a chess engine rated above 2000 was with the Colle-Zukertort:

awesome! thanks for the examples!

Good point - I hate playing against pattern openings too - especially if I only learn the pattern after it hits me where it hurts (usually that oh-so-delicate area around my king). What other pattern openings are there that seem to work well? I am curious which ones would get that label, and maybe I can study how to play against those. I don't know much about the French, except that I don't play well against it. I've never played it myself.

I beat a 1700 uscf player in my latest OTB tournament who played that opening. It was the final round of the tournament and I got 42$ for that win. I basically just set up my pieces in the standard kings indian positions. I ended up beating him in the endgame with tactics.

I play the Colle System from time to time.  But unlike the London System (1 d4  2 Nf3  3 Bf4) or the King's Indian Attack (1 Nf3  2 g3  3 Bg2  4 O-O), the Colle isn't an opening that can be played against all of the major Black defenses.  For example, the Colle is usually ineffective when Black finachettos his KB, and can't be played at all against 1...f5.  So, the Colle can be PART of a comprehensive repertoire if it is supplmented with something like the London System and/or the Torre Attack (1 d4  2 Nf3  3 Bg5).

      I, TOO play the Zuckertort. I have an excellent book, zuke em. I get good results when black lets you play it.

I used to play the Colle OTB but switched in favour of the KIA. My OTB opponent found it quite easy to break my position down with a few judicious pawn pushes at my centre. Still I think it is an interesting opening.

I'd agree that the problematic games I've had in the Colle system have usually involved my opponent using his center pawns aggressively.

i used to

ps taking the pawn leads to diferent problens

Hi misterfever - as "chesskia" says in his reply to you, "Zuke 'Em" is a very good book on probably the most flexible way of playing the Colle (i.e. the Zukertort -Colle). However, note also what "chuckychess" says to you about  some other opening systems with which you can supplement it if, like me, you want to keep your openings knowledge to a minimal yet workable level, for the average player. BTW, Chernev's book is very good; but, I think you might also like another book using an almost identical format which is, I think, more up-to-date in various ways: "Chess: the art of logical thinking", by Neil McDonald. All the best!!

Again, thanks for the all of the help. I have seen the ...c5 push and it does cause problems, although I've tried c4 in a stubborn attempt at keeping my plans open for a similar kingside attack, and it's worked out okay. I think you nailed it though bigmac, with prior knowledge of opponent, it is easy to form a plan against; however, I still plan to try it out with new opponents and maybe I'll even start a Colle tournament on here. If interested, let me know :)

About the McDonald book, I'll get that along with the Zuke 'Em book. As I was reading your comment, I was afraid you'd recommend the similar book by John Nunn, which I have, and for some reason, it really didn't do much for me. I'm sure the analysis is dead-on but it's more difficult to read, focuses too much on "systems", and you have to jump around from game to game to fill in details of opening moves if they've already been covered elsewhere in the book. It's just inconvenient, although I guess it does save paper! Maybe as I improve I'll learn to appreciate that book more - but once I started the Chernev book it was like a glorious rainbow spread across my apartment. There may have been a bluebird too, I can't quite remember.

Also - playing my second OTB tourney next weekend - cross your collective fingers for me!

Well, move-order is important to consider when playing a system. If Black plays something like c5, as bigmac30 mentioned, you're going to have to adapt your move-order. I would go ahead with b3 after c5.

I like it when my opponent plays the Colle as I know I'm in for an easy game.

The way to answer c5 is with c3. if black plays c4 white should rub his hands with glee! :D either an immediate e4 can be played or Nbd2 then e4. either way the c4 pawn becomes takeable or you can get a pawn to e5!

 I play the Colle System, the London System and the Torre Attack rather frequently. Almost always the best response to ...P-c5 is P-c3.  In the Colle-Zukertort (which I don't play), it seems to me that P-c3 might not always be best, given that White is fianchettoing his QB, and the pawn on c3 would block that bishop.

Hi Chucky, c3 is practically never played early in the C-Z for that very reason. Of course there is no need for it in this particular situation since b3 works just fine.

The only real danger here is that Black is playing for some delayed stonewall, but there are both sensible and "downright fun" ways of meeting that.

By the way, mister fever, that was exactly the book that turned me onto the Colle so many years ago!