Colle System

As a Colle player .... The positives are about equal to the negatives.

First... If you take up the Colle, know that about 1 out of 4 games played will be a Colle proper.

For an opening that many say is totally innocuous people try everything to avoid it. It's not a forcing opening. So your opponent's can play many defense... Slav, Semi Slav, QID, KID, Grunfeld So you will have to work on lines that address those defenses. Anti-Colle lines can be tricky... but at best... Black only equalizes...

I like the Colle-Koltanowski var (Caution... to play it... One must play aggressively!... you must channel your inner Chess Swashbuckler of the early 1800s... you can't play it timid. )

I encounter mainly Anti-Colle lines. (you have to be careful, a lot of Bad recommendations, by bad authors for what to play as White in Anti-Colle lines) The Chigorin, The Slav and the Semi Slav... I play a mainlines of those defense and don't stick to the Colle. (It's fairly easy to play the mainlines of those defense. Against the KID and Grunfeld what they call a Semi- Classical lines comes naturally...

If you do decide to play the Colle and go with the Koltaowski Var ... in Colle main lines White still has a good game... that said.... I'd stay away from the old ...Nc6 main lines with 9.e4. (White is not doing good in that line) play the newer lines with 9.b4 White has the better chances.

One last thing... 1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. e3 c5!? or 1.d4 d5 3.Nf3 c5!? you will see a lot, mainly because of the London's popularity... I've found playing dxc5 as early as possible taking the game into a color's reversed QGA or Semi Slav gives me a good game and often throws black off theirs..

Example of a game played today 

Hope this helps

Because it's about the least fun it is possible to have on a chessboard.

I'm going to quote from one of my favorite Opening Manuals (that's proved extremely useful and effective) John Cox "dealing with d4 deviations" (Cox fide IM who reached 2400+ in actual OTB... not the internet)

Quote...

1.) I didn't actually have a repertoire at all against say, the Colle. You just play chess, right? develop the pieces and equalize. I remember Grandmaster Vlatko Koveacevic playing the Colle against me back before databases. I had no idea this was his customary weapon of mass destruction, and I thought I must have sat down at the wrong board. A GM playing 3.e3 ?? With that attitude, it won't surprise you (the reader) I got torched on the kingside around move 25

2.) I was bored by these openings: I didn't consider them interesting There is probably some objective sense in which these openings are not as interesting as main lines. But to let that affect me was childish. One, winning any game is more interesting, than losing any game. Two, in any chess position there are good moves and bad moves, and telling them apart is fundamentally what the game is about. If you find some types of positions more interesting than others, that's a comment about you, not about the positions. 

3.) Not only did I not consider them interesting , I didn't consider them dangerous. Again dumb. In the 1930s the top guys didn't know whether these openings or the Queens Gambit were better. These were the 2700s of their day; they understood chess a lot better than I do, and if something wasn't obvious to them, it was arrogant of me to think it would be obvious to me if I just figured it out over the board. I could easily list easily a hundred 2550+ players that have succumbed to the openings in this book.

(end Quote)

Here you have a battle hardened IM admitting he had trouble with openings like the Colle, the London, the Torre etc.. and him saying that an opening like the Colle, played with skill is a viable opening. (Have you ever looked at Vlatko Koveacevic games, or Edgar Colle's and Geroge Koltanowski... Very aggressive play... nothing boring there ) Even in 2005, Cox still got some analysis wrong (i.e. with the Colle, ) ... Not a knock on him... ******* in the 1930s the top guys didn't know whether these openings of the Queens Gambit were better. These were the 2700s of their day; they understood chess a lot better than I do**** , I've taken this to mean these opening can be deceptive. I'm not the only who thinks this, IM Bronznik who wrote a master text on the Kotanowski variation is cited saying as much.

All this is saying to me... Opening are wide open below the 2550 elo mark. Why not take up openings that appeal to you and not give a frak what people think about what you're playing... A win is a win and a loss is a loss...

Finally, 99% of us, when we hang up are chess spurs.... Our game sheets/scores are all going into the same trash dump. No one is going to remember an average club player like me. So I play old classical openings... inspired by how guys like Edgar Colle or Kotec, Grunfeld, Euwe, Flohr etc or a more modern guys like Koveacevic and Yusupov etc... how they played them.

I seem enjoy the game even more this way.

"All this is saying to me... Opening are wide open below the 2550 elo mark. Why not take up openings that appeal to you and not give a frak what people think about what you're playing... A win is a win and a loss is a loss...

Finally, 99% of us, when we hang up are chess spurs.... Our game sheets/scores are all going into the same trash dump. No one is going to remember an average club player like me. So I play old classical openings... inspired by how guys like Edgar Colle or Kotec, Grunfeld, Euwe, Flohr etc or a more modern guys like Koveacevic and Yusupov etc... how they played them.

I seem enjoy the game even more this way. "

I love your response, pcalugaru, and wholeheartedly agree with you. Not to nitpick (but that's what we are doing when employ that phrase), our beloved Colle's given name was Edgard, not Edgar. Cheers!

I used to play the Colle a lot, but discovered in due course that a kingside fianchetto by Black is enough to blunt White's game. So I reverted to playing it only against strangers.

These two lines are completely contradictory. If there is some objective sense in which they are less interesting, then how is thinking they are less interesting a comment on me and not the position?
I don't think the Colle is a bad opening at all, certainly not below GM level anyway. It's just dull. Especially for Black, where the easiest way to counter the opening is to make the most boring moves possible (literally mirroring White in the Colle-Zukertort, for example) but dull for White as well. I realize I'm not going to convince you of this, but if you play an opening where it makes sense to say the words "I'm trying to get my setup", then when I am dictator-for-life of the chess world, you will be in chess jail.

I'm curious if you have seen this line before: 1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 e6 3. e3 d5 4. Bd3 Bd6 5. O-O Nbd7 6. b3 e5 7. dxe5 Nxe5 8. Bb2 Nxf3+ 9. Qxf3 Bg4 10. Bxf6 Qd7 11. Bf5 Bxf5 12. Bxg7 Rg8. When I played the Nimzo and was therefore forced to play 2...e6, I used to play this, where the usual idea is to get a quick e5 in. I don't think many people know about this. After 9. Qxf3 White is still outscoring Black at Lichess 2000+, even though Black is totally winning. I like the motif with 10...Qd7 where Black is like "oh you removed the defender? Yeah I have another one".

Unfortunately No...

I gravitated towards the Koltanowski Var. I'm used to the two. e5 advances playing that var. The Accelerated e5 pawn and what I call the Hyper Accelerated Pawn push. Both are seen in the Nbd7 lines of the Koltanowski .

Example

1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.e3 e6 4.Bd3 Bd6 5.Nbd2 Nbd7 6.0-0 0-0 7.Re1 c5 8.c3 e5?! 9.e4! (White's forces in the center out number Black's 5-4 It is said... The opening of the center gives White the advantage and... if 9...cxd4 10. cxd4 dxe4 11. Nxe4 Nxe4 12. Rxe4! presents Black with a lot of difficulties.

The Hyper Accelerated: Black plays 1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.e3 Nbd7 I play 4.c4!? then... 4...c6 5.Nc3 e6 6.Bd3 Bd6 its Either a Non Meran Semi Slav, then I play 7. e4! (with a similar motif as in the Colle Nbd7 lines just given.

If. 6...dxc4 its obviously a Meran 7.Bxc4 b5 8.Bd3 Bb7 Etc Etc.... Which I like to play too

I've found studying the QGA, The Slav and the Semi Slav really helps my Colle

6.b3 & going into a Zuckertort has always been committed endeavor outside my scope.

With the Colle in a transposing sense..... "I like to keep my cards close to my vest"

If Black plays 3.c5!? usually they have something hiding up their sleeve. (a lot of times its a delayed g6 and Bg7) I usually don't wait for Nbd7... I play 4.dxc5!? (as in the game I post above) It's a continuation that was often played by Alekhine and Najdorf and many others. It can lead to a colors reverse QGA, a reversed Noteboom or a reversed Semi Slav. (often with an advantage for White)

The masters of the 1930s obviously knew how to play the Colle and work around many of the Black's schemes. (IMO we just forgot about them because the Colle fell out of favor)

That fall out was primarily due to the dismal stats of the Colle Nc6 main lines where White plays 9.e4... that line also put me off from playing the Colle, but... on discovering Rudel's 9.b4 (the stats seem to be better) I've started playing the Colle again.

I never much worried about the delayed Grunfeld lines .... I just play along a model game: Nester-Mueller Venice 1950

1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.e3 e6 4.Bd3 c5 5.c3 Nbd7 6.Nbd2 g6 7.0-0 Qc7 8.e4 dxe4 9.Nxe4 cxd4 10.Nxd4 Nxe4 11.Bxe4 a6²

Or... 9...Nxe4 10.Bxe4 Nf6 11.Bc2 cxd4 12.Nxd4² Colle E Monticelli San Remo 1930

It becomes an endgame slugfest with the 3-2 pawn majority on the queenside.. with every exchange, IMO White's advantage grows

All that hot air written by me ... I need a lot of work... I'm not that good.

To reiterate... The fun for me is playing openings from an era of Chess that I really love, getting into the minutia of why the masters played what and why... It's kind of like being chess anachronistic ....

Below a Super GM level you'd be surprised how many named sidelines with a coherent strategic idea behind them are playable. People overestimate how much opening choice matters. There is no magical rating range where the Colle starts to lose every game. At worst it gives Black an early equality, but in a midgame position the White player supposedly knows better so it has pragmatic value.