Why do people hate the London System?

Played this game last night. Yawn. But a draw for black is a I suppose a moral victory against a higher graded player. I kicked off with the Old Benoni expecting a London. As white it's possible to play very anemically without risk... The computer likes expansions of g4 for white and g5 for black earlier on. Other than that, evaluations ranged from -0.5 to 0.5

Didn't U watch fake news on CNN, BBC and Co. ?!? It's highly likely that Soviet grandmasters invented a chess novelty, called Novichok, totally demolishing the London system. 

As a Londoner, I'm curious, when was the 1st mention of this name? Serious question, what's the first time?

Was it done by the French to annoy us?

I would give Western news 1 out of 10 for truthfulness and RT is what is known as 'Hobson's choice' for many of us, 3 out of 10 ! The West is rotten to the core. Putin however is not that great counter weight Yigor

I think it was played at an international tournament in London around a hundred years ago. Some intrepid explorer might like to search for the reference on a search engine. (Can we avoid the 'G' word? We shouldn't encourage them.)

So many LS players became stupid braindead autopilots. Many LS players play h3 in every single game although there're are better alternatives. They became even lazy in other areas of the game.

Yeah, Ziggy, I can agree. The level of truthfulness is well-reflected by this new joke/sarcasm :

Watson: "Sherlock, I wonder why London is covered in fog so often ?"

Sherlock: "Elementary, my dear Watson. Russians use Novichok to poison their traitors/spies".

a lot of higher level chess (im referring here to the lower end, expert to low GM) involves preparation of openings. the london system is a very cheap way to get a very decent position.  White can pretty much ignore black's setup and get his pieces to good squares. this pretty much ruins black's home prep.

at the very high levels, this is not seen as often bc many top GM's find the comfort of throwing home prep out the window is not worth losing the first move advantage.  in fact, they are certain formations you can play agaisnt the london system that give black a tiny advantage, i believe a KID formation is one of them since the bishop gets harrassed by the eventual e5 for example.

this is why the london is often called the old man opening.

@darkunorthodox88 Why is it called the old man opening? I encounter this opening in every single freaking game!

bc even an old man with no idea on latest opening theory can stay afloat playing the london

That's agist!

its especially dangerous if white is a strong player who knows when to slightly deviate from the formulaic london to take advantage of black inaccuracies. for example, instead of playing, 1.d4 2.bf4 3.e3/nf3, and the standard c3, some lines might actually give preference to c4! or even an early nc3! breaking the london pattern. unfortunately, a lot of london players miss these improvements in favor of the formulaic 10 move formation.

It's not just the London people hate.  They hate the whole English.  Bobby Fischer played 1. c4 and Oscar Panno resigned.

I love it. For once Churchill was a cancerous white ball of fat. Couple that with the fact that the London is refuted by the King´s Indian Defense and you realize why it is crap! You better play 2.Nf3? and not 2.Bf4?? 0-1

That was because Fischer was a dirty _____ that did not play on the 7th day of the week for religious reasons.. And then he still asked them to take his name off the book. LOL. What a damn nutjob he was.

Probably because he hasn't learned how to play against it. So he finds it difficult to crack.

It's much like the Stonewall Attack—it can be annoying if you don't know how to play against it, especially when white seems to just get a solid position on auto-pilot moves.

But if you do know what you're doing as black, neither the London nor the Stonewall should bother you at all.

(I like playing the KID or the QID against either setup. Usually ends up with the center getting smashed open, which kind of goes against the stylistic preference of many London and Stonewall players, who generally prefer a solid, fixed pawn structure.)

I don't mind playing against it when I'm Black, especially since it feels like so many people playing it at my level (1600 Blitz) or lower are just "clicking buttons" after they finish developing, without any clear plan for what to do when the middle game begins.

Because apparently it's more exciting to regurgitate lines of partially understood theory then have to come up with a plan over the board..

lol well said. The london system is perfectly fine. What I don't l like are most of the players. 

They always play the same moves no matter what the opponent plays. The problem is that they get rewarded with a furious kingside attack because so many players at their level don't know how to defend against those braindead manoeuvers.

Because they win so many games with that style of play they think they're on the right path. Even if they lose they don't learn from their mistakes.

In the next game they play the same moves and the same move order AGAIN!

Why do they play h3 all the time? It's not always the best move.

The London System isn't boring but the players who play it are lame and boring.

When Carlsen plays the London System it's really refreshing because he think's outside of the box.

He even exchanged his light squared bishop to secure an outpost for his knight.

This is really creative and refreshing. Of course, we cannot expect such play from mere mortals but I expect at least the will to improve your play based on past mistakes.

There is always something to improve or optimize so don't switch off your brain in the opening and be creative.

It's actually funny how those london players on one hand say it is always about plans and ideas but on the other hand they are too lazy to think for themselves because they memorize all their system moves.

GM authors say that looking at opening theory only makes sense if you understand WHY the moves are played.

Many LS- players don't really understand the nuances and subtleties of their own opening.