Opening Study #1: London System (Part 1): Mainline

Hello guys, welcome to the series! I started it because I was influenced by ESMolen with his own opening studies. As of now, they are all about the King's Gambit. But what I want to talk about today, is the London System. Now, the London System is an aggressive and solid opening and can be played by any level. Today, we are talking about the mainline of the opening. For those who are new to chess or generally don't know the opening, here is how it goes:

Here are the recommended sources for starters:

[Removed - please don't advertise competitor sites - David, moderator]

YouTube Videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5Qr_3boEqM

(this source above is optional)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsB2cNjFeg4

-I recommend viewing those sources before coming back here.

So, here is how the mainline goes:

If you have any ideas or comments about it, or if you know any games based on the mainline, I would love to hear it in the forums! If you have questions about the mainline, I and the sources will do their best to answer it.

If you have any suggestions on what openings I should do next, PM me at my profile. Stay safe, develop in your opening repertoire, and get good at chess! Have fun!

NOTE: These kinds of forums are only for sharing ideas, comments, questions, and games based on specific openings talked about by the forum creator

EDIT: How I will do the parts for each opening will be like this: 

-P1: Mainline

-P2: Sidelines

-P3: Advantages vs Disadvantages

My man! I like this. 

Thx bro. Credit to you for the idea

My idea for black in the mainline would be to start a queen side expansion and eventually open the c file for the rooks. White has dissolve most of black's counterplay. So this is a solid position for white. The problem is once the position starts to open up, white's king will  be very weak since it's still stuck in the center. So black has chances in this position as well. White will try to start a pawn march on the king side, so black will definitely want to bust open the position to attack white's king in the center.

I see that as black, you would want to open up the game, but I don't see sense in some of your ideas

NOTE: I am giving oppositions on your ideas that confuse me based on my intelligence, so it's not an official refutation of your ideas. Besides, how could a school player refute a club player's ideas (unless I have a higher rating)?

1. Attacking the queenside

Now, White already has a pawn chain at b2, c3, and d4, so it stops the majority of black counterattacks, which makes the white king safer for the a5-e1 diagonal is closed. If you are talking about pawn counterattacks, White would simply castle kingside.

2. Doubling rooks on c-file

Again, the pawn chain can also refute this. If cxd4, then exd4. If c4, Bc2 preparing b3. After the pawn exchange, Rc1 is the answer. From there, white has ideas like Qe2 --> 0-0 --> Rc2 --> Rhc1, doubling rooks first than Black

3. The white king is exposed

The white king is barely exposed. As mentioned before, the pawn chain blocks the a5-e1 diagonal. Plus, white can castle

4.  Black has chances in the position

If you look at the first Lichess Study I gave in the opening post, in chapter two, it will show that White has many ideas in the position. Black's position is just cramped, so there can barely be any play there

God not this opening again. Stop telling people about the London we don't need any more London players. Ugh.. disgusting.

Anyway this is probably the most famous game with this:

Well, as you said, the pawn chain in this opening prevents black's counterplay. I can agree, but the cons can go for white as well. White has limited attacking chances because of the pawn chain. Sure, white currently has a good knight on e5, but it can immediately be challenged later on. Since white is going to castle King side in this opening, then the position won't lead to any sharp play and there is less attacking chances for both sides thanks to their solid pawn chain. Funny enough, the london system used to be called the "Boring Opening". Considering that white is keeping enemy counterplay to a minimun, thus boring their opponent to death.

London system isn't bad it's brilliant ii know some variations with which I became very good at tactic

Here is a classical game from the 2023 World Championship Match
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=2477747

This games exemplifies the pros and cons of the London. By move 6 ... Black equalized.. moves 7-14 the game becomes ambiguous. Around move 17 Black gets a slight initiative but the position is still theoretically equal... after move 32 ... from an Equal position White outplayed Black for the win.

No concrete lines... all position themes