King's Pawn Opening: Leonardis Variation

what is the weakness and strength of King's Pawn Opening: Leonardis Variation?

Most people, like me, would have to look this up.

 
P.S.--I noticed a couple videos on YouTube about this opening, which are probably good, but I didn't take the time to watch them.

Another drawback is that White prematurely blocked in his KB. Another plus is that White's position is very solid, like Philidor's Defense. I looked this up in a database. The most popular continuation is:

Notice that Black has already equalized with ...d5 and has a wide open diagonal for his KB, whereas White's KB is stuck at e2 for a while.

All of you are missing white's real plan with this opening:

White wants to exchange his f pawn for black's e pawn and is threatening e6 (main line)

White can also play it as a King's Indian Attack.

Its only disadvantage is that after 2...d5 Black gets a small edge.

Somewhere in the range of +0.05-0.12, so nothing really to be afraid of.

I would think that after 2...d5 3. exd5 then if 3...Nf6 4. Nf3 and white is happy. I don't think 2...d5 is best.

PS: I initially kinda discounted lines where black plays Qxd5, Looking a little more closely, those are probably better than I assumed. Still, my feel is black doesn't want to play d5 without Nf6 first.

On the contrary - 2...Qxd5 is best.

Central e5-pawn versus central less advanced d3-pawn, with no other tempo or related bonuses for White - that is already sufficient to guarantee a small black edge.

What's the SF evaluation of this line?

Don't forget that Black can continue ...f7-f5 at any time, building a strong central duo.

What will White oppose?

2...Qxd5 transpose into centre game reversed where d3 could be a useful free move.

Really not a good way to play as black...

Both 3...Qxd5 and 3...Nf6 look ok to me, all other moves are, at least, suboptimal. So, this is a 2-acute position :

But the evaluation of this position is close to the strict zero anyway. 

Because you say so.

I have analysed that meticulously with SF, man.

Nc3 does not gain a tempo as, after the queen retreats, the knight can not continue chasing it

as it will be a target of enemy pawns itself with due tempo losses.

So, really the only salient feature is the e5 vs d3 pawns, which favours Black.

2...Nf6 is suboptimal, if not an outright mistake.

In this case, White has even 3. c4!, where after 3...c6 4. dxc6 White gets some clear edge very much

similar to a line in the Scandinavian.

I have analysed this carefully with SF.

Thanks Lyudmil for your very helpful comments...

Every time I read u, u seem completely clueless about what u are talking but at least u ckecked with SF...

I know a trap:

I’ve found this (2.d3) to be the most effective way to play the KIA after 1.e4 e5. I hope for a semi-open game, but will play this otherwise. It is slow and painful but seems to work for me. The worst that can happen is I lose my lead pawn and have to pull up the d-pawn and we have missing pawns. But the games are slow and complex after this! Or I could probably play the Ruy Lopez since I am white. I like the advantage of an unusual line. Opening analysis by SF is kind of useless on the 2nd move. I ignore it until some real threats are out there.

As a relatively mediocre player (currently 1149 Blitz) this opening has really improved my performance. It seems to confuse my opponents and for whatever reason I seem to make way fewer blunders when I play this opening. 

Nice catch, I've been using this variation wrong this entire time.

Thanks!

yoooooooooo

this opening is very underrated but I use it pretty often, if you play it the right way you could win pretty quickly with it.