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London System Musings : How to play with Black

London System Musings : How to play with Black

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Going back again to the London System.

White plays 1d4 then quickly Bf4 and avoids the Queen's Gambit Theory.

Very popular online at all levels, because White repeats the same set-up in the beginning without thinking too long where to put the pieces.

This is typical of the London. Sometimes White plays c4 or a4 but more often than not, h2-h3 is played, Nbd2 and Nf3,Bd3. You get the idea.

This is not new. Let's see a top game played at US Championship 2015 between Gata Kamsky (who still plays this system) and Hikaru Nakamura

The game ended in a draw.
These days, one of the strong blitz streamers out there is @wonderfultime, IM Minh Le.
If it wasn't for the pandemic, it is pretty clear Minh Le plays at GM level, which is something both Hikaru and Daniel Naroditsky have stated publicly.
IM Minh Le plays the London system quite a lot, and here's a youtube Video he uploaded commenting on his Titled Tuesday Game

And here's the game 

An impressive performance and clearly Minh Le is very familiar with the main lines of the London system.

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But are there ways to put London players out of the comfort zone and play for a win with Black ?

The answer is yes. One of the very successful blitz players at GM level is Oleksandr Bortnyk.

https://www.chess.com/member/oleksandr_bortnyk

He plays very sharp chess, tries to win as many games as possible with White and with Black.

This is because often the format these days are arenas, where you need to win as many points as possible in 2 hours. Also Titled Tuesdays only offers prizes for first 4, so making a lot of draws won't cut it.

And here's one example between Gata Kamsky and Bortnyk.

In this position, Bortnyk with Black played 10..g5 followed by 11..Rg8. He also played later ..Kf8 and went on to win. Kamsky is a very strong player so the game went on for a long time
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Here's a recent game by Bortnyk with the same set-up as Black against the London. A very quick win in this blitz game.

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Now Bortnyk can also modify this set-up. He also comes up with an idea to play Ra7 and Qa8.

This is not something you see every day.

Here's the position

This was also played against Kamsky and the game ended up in a draw
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Finally you may be wondering if @wonderfultime and Bortnyk played games featuring the London.
the answer is many !
Here's one where Bortnyk wins with the Black pieces , placing his bishops on b7 and g7, double fianchetto system for Black