Is the London system good?

The London is a great, sound flexible opening that is easy to learn, gives you great piece development (great bishops anyway), you get predictable pawn structures with predictable middle game plans. Why WOULDNT you play it online? You just want to make you life unnecessarily hard?

Unless you are sub 2000 you shouldn't be worried about whether a line theoretically equalizes or not. Its all about understanding your opening, understanding your middle game plans and executing them better than the next guy. Why do you think theoretically dubious openings work all the time?

BINGO! They all work. Its really about which one suits your style more than which one is "good". Typically the person who gets an advantage out of the opening is the one who understands their opening better. If you like a triangular pawn structure around D4/D5 with relatively closed positions, like a Caro or a Slav, the London is great. You have similar piece play, similar pawn breaks, kind of a calm middle game compared to lots of E4 openings. I don't know why people criticize the London. Its much easier to learn than mainline D4 openings IMHO.

My preference, playing the London, is for Black to play the England Gambit, and yes, I do mean against other beginner- level players

This isn't exactly typical, but it happens:

In an online setting every game you play is your first and only game against that opponent, they have no time to prep either... i.e. the value of surprise is maximized, and to leverage that you play something sharp or novel, practically every London plays the same it's a very dull game, this is not the way to play online. 
Furthermore, the main benefit of the London is it can't be avoided, which in a tournament setting allows you to nullify your opponents prep. It's also very easy to prepare because all the lines play the same, which allows you not to expose your prep. But again in an online setting neither of these benefits are relevant whatsoever.

There is nothing difficult about the London middlegame as black. There is almost no pressure applied to black in this opening.

The post you're responding to contrasts the London with another equal opening - the nimzo-larsen, you're not even following the conversation.

You're making your opponents life easy as well. I said from the beginning that the only people who should play the London online are those who don't want to study the opening. But if in the process of making life easy for yourself you also make it easy for the opponent... you're just playing half-aʂʂed, which is also my point.

I always play it, yall can look at my games, it's pretty solid

Dina Belenkaya interview, Ben Finegold, 6/15/2025

"Um ... Vladimir Kramnik. And his fight against cheating. Do you think he's doing the right thing?"

"I don't know why he cares about cheating online. People cheat online. They get caught. They don't get caught. He came to the conclusion that everybody's cheating. So that ruins his argument... when he just accuses everybody, 'cause it's just silly. So yeah, he's obviously lost his mind. I'm the only person that tells Kramnic he's insane that he doesn't block. And I said, 'He hasn't blocked me 'cause I'm a grandmaster.' And he said, 'No, I haven't blocked you 'cause you haven't made it personal.' And I'm like, 'What? I've made it more personal than anyone. I said, 'You've lost your mind.' And his response was, 'At least I have a mind.' And my wife thought that was really funny, so she laughed at that. But yeah, I used to complain to Kramnik a lot about his crazy ideas and then I said like, 'Well, I'm done.' 'Cause he just keeps tweeting, 'everybody's cheating, everybody's cheating'. So that's, you know, now obviously if three people are cheating out of a hundred and you accuse 90 of them, then the three people get caught. Kramnic's like, 'See, I said that guy cheated.' Well, you said 87 other people cheated too and they didn't. I mean, he's gone overboard."

"What about his eternal battle against the chess mafia?"

"The chess mafia will never defeat them. Yeah. I don't know what that's all about... although I like the term 'chess mafia'."

LOL

Yes,good for white

Yess

YES! LONDON SISTEM FOR WHITE IS SOOOO GOD!

+1 Glad I'm not the only one who see "hot air" when they read it... I'm a little bias towards D-pawn openings, & I don't play the London myself. That said, I'm an advocate for the London for the reasons you cited. I also play triangular pawn formation with the Colle Koltanowski. On the internet and OTB people will play everything but the kitchen sink & knowing the opening backwards and forwards including the pawn formations makes all the difference.

Nothing wrong with the London... I've won against it as Black and have also been torched by it. In the hands of someone who knows how to play the London, it's formidable opening as any. Multiple GMs at the 2500 level play the heck out of it!

Many here act like they have never lost to someone playing the London. Of course we know that is a lie... I wonder what they say when it happens.... "Ummmmm Ummmmm... My eyebrows were to long and threw off my game.... Ummmm Ummmm.... My mommy put mustered on my sandwich and I had bubble gut. etc etc...

Then there is crud about how easy the London is to prepare against.... Pure disinformation that is... Someone who takes an opening like the London seriously .. Really? People don't think the London player hasn't seen whatever prep someone is going to whip up using a chess engine 5 min before the game? Really?

I just watched a pod cast with Adrian Toth (one of the top chess coaches in the West) where he cited that because of the modern chess engine, it's incredibly hard to get a theoretical advantage anymore... At the top they now play for practical advantages aiming for positions of depth and scope. I'll always contend that if someone can pull up a engine an hour before the game and brew up a counter to your prep .... then you don't know your opening. Period! Knowing your opening is you know all the lines to transpose away from. Knowing your opening is, you know the positions where (Black or White) achieves equality and have multiple ideas on what to play in those positions. etc etc ... Honestly... with everyone using engines now... I don't see any other way to thwart that kind of pre game prep other than thoroughly mastering an opening or defense. Seems to me if your playing an opening where the opposite color has a massive amount of options, or extremely complex in-depth positions... your task just got a whole lot harder. 90% of us will never be a titled player, I think choosing openings as if you are is bogus

Then there is .... what's the ELO of people doing that kind of prep before a game? A) you got to be strong enough where your games are public... and if your that strong, then you done mastered whatever opening your playing, probably have two tiers with a couple of lines to keep pre game engine users in check. And if and when they loose ... 90 % of the time it's not the opening's fault.

jobava london is a troll

White gets nothing and black gets nothing

Ben Finegold teaches it, Igor Smirnov teaches it, Dina Belenkaya says it's good at all levels. Magnus plays it, Firouzja plays it, Giri plays it.