Playing London System with black

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geekeasy

I have defenses with black that I like when my opponent opens with E4 or D4.  

But if they play something else, I just default to playing a London System with the black pieces. And it seems to work well enough if for no other reason because I don't have to spend minutes analyzing their non-typical attack.  

What do people think of this idea?  And are there any other "generic" defenses that people might suggest instead?

I'm at 1120 now and hoping to get up to 1200 soon.   Below is an example of one of my games where white started with C4. 



justbefair
geekeasy wrote:

I have defenses with black that I like when my opponent opens with E4 or D4.  

But if they play something else, I just default to playing a London System with the black pieces. And it seems to work well enough if for no other reason because I don't have to spend minutes analyzing their non-typical attack.  

What do people think of this idea?  And are there any other "generic" defenses that people might suggest instead?

I'm at 1120 now and hoping to get up to 1200 soon.   Below is an example of one of my games where white started with C4. 



It might be good for you when white quietly plays e3 but I always remember hearing that white could get an advantage by exchanging and bringing the queen to b3.

 

Yigor

U could play Hippo, Modern / Pirc, KID or QID vs everything. peshka.png

harriw

The position you are showing could emerge from the Slav defense, if White plays inaccurately (the pawn exchange + Qb3 wins a pawn as pointed out). If you play 1. c4 d5 against the English, I would say that any typical English player will capture the pawn and you are in a Scandinavian type of a position but having exchanged your d-pawn to a c-pawn instead of an e-pawn. Opening explorer tells that at master level d5 is ranked eleventh in popularity as a response to 1. c4 and that the winning rate for White is 62%. After 2. cxd5 the winning rate for White is already 77%, which is an indication that the line is not too good for Black.

KnightChecked

I recommend you research the "Semi-Slav" instead. It has the same "triangle" of pawns that you seem to like (at e6/d5/c6), though you don't develop your queen bishop until later.

The reason for this is that, if you develop the queen bishop too early, it can weaken your queenside in some lines, and an experienced player would take advantage of that.

For that reason, you won't find strong players using a reversed London as a universal Black defense. You will, though, find strong players who play the Semi-Slav Defense. It's a defense that even the current World Champion plays.

So, yes: I recommend you check out the Semi-Slav Defense. 

Wildekaart

I assume you played e6 last in that position, in which case I'd suggest playing 4..Nf6 instead. This transposes to a line that's been played quite often in the 3. Nc3 Slav. The line I'll share here is quite an interesting one: