Le Minh's Blitz Repertoire

Learn to get solid positions filled with traps, like Le Tuan Minh, one of the best online blitz players, aka 'wonderfultime' on chess.com and 'mutdpro' on lichess.org

In this article, I examine Minh Le's opening Repertoire that he used in 2023-2024 in Blitz and Bullet games. I used only public information that anybody can find on the website https://www.openingtree.com/

Concept

Le Tuan Minh is a player who has been mastering the understanding of London structures for many years. His approach and move orders have evolved, and he mostly chooses his path over the most popular ones or even the engine's recommendations. With black, he either plays venomous 2...Nf6 Sicilian or solid Qd8 Scandinavian against 1.e4 and 4...a6 Slav against 1.d4, where he is attempting to place the bishop on f5 and often gets reversed London positions with black (what a dedication!).

Black: Sicilian 2...Nf6 or Scandinavian Qd8 against 1.e4; Slav 4...a6 in the case of 1.d4
White: London & Trompowsky

The logic of the concept:
1. Having Similar reactions to key moves is essential. Minh Le tries to create as little confusion for himself as possible, even when the engine doesn't like it.
2. Arising positions are mostly super solid, which enables a possibility of playing super quickly in the opening
3. Focus on practical value over engine evaluations. Some lines are pretty bad, but practice shows that refutation rarely appears on the board.

White 1.d4 London & Trompowsky

Against the most active system, d5-c5, Minh Le plays a rare concept - c3. Generally speaking, this system is not considered ambitious because black can exchange on d4 and transpose the game into the exchange slav, which has a drawish reputation. However, Slav itself is not fashionable these days, and most opponents aren't going to take on d4. The advantage of the c3 move order is that white is not forced to sacrifice the b2 pawn against Qb6 and can react with solid Qc2.

When black plays the solid e6 system, followed mainly by Bd6, Minh Le's main reaction involves keeping the bishop on f4 and allowing the exchange there, which has some benefits. If black doesn't delay Nc6 and plays it quite early, then the reaction is Bb5, which has an idea of capturing the knight followed by pressure on c5/c6 pawns.

If Black plays Bf5, Minh Le goes for the typical attack of the b7 pawn with Qb3. However, it is worth mentioning that his preferred move order is c4-Qb3 without e3, which prevents weird Bb1-Bb4+ systems and an unbalanced game. The d5-g6 system is rare, and Minh Le plays it in a standard positional way.

When black goes for Nf6-e6, the game mostly transposes into d5 lines. The reason is Minh Le's standard reaction — c3 vs. c5, which cancels independent lines like cxd4-exd4-b6 followed by Ba6. If black decides to deviate from c5, Minh Le often plays c4, trying to get a more ambitious setup.

In the case of Nf6-g6, Minh Le no longer plays the London and goes for the Trompowsky instead. I believe that his concept inside of Bg5 is creative and very efficient, especially for blitz games. White gets a simple game with some venom in critical lines, especially the e4 reaction against the d5-e5 system.

In the case of sidelines. Minh Le often deviates from London and may play some very active systems. For example, the Staunton gambit against the Dutch, or 2.e4 against Pirc/Philidor, followed by systems that are similar to Trompowsky against Nf6-g6

Black: Chebanenko Slav 4...a6

The e3 systems in Slav don't attempt to prevent the main conceptual idea of Minh Le - developing the bishop on f5 and trying to get a reversed London. The ideas and piece development are similar to the London system except for the reaction to the attack of the b7 pawn, which is usually Ra7. The rook is placed weirdly on a7, but white cannot punish for that quickly, and black gets a solid position.

Against Nf3&Nc3, it can be more challenging to place the bishop on f5; however, the positions often get pretty non-standard. For example, Nd7-e5 ideas against c5, or capturing and holding the c4 pawn against Qc2. Knowing the precise reaction against all strange moves that don't let the bishop on f5 is essential. Black shouldn't play this position mindlessly and only try to place the bishop on f5.

The approach against Exchange Slav is playing a6 and trying to develop the light-squared bishop on g4. It is worth mentioning that black often need to exchange the developed bishop for the knight and prevent creating massive pressure on the Queen's side. The typical reaction against Qb3 is Ra7; however, black sometimes can get more aggressive with moves like Nh5.

Against classical Reti, Minh Le plays fashionable 2...Nd7 system, which allows to place the bishop on f5 and basically get a reversed London where if white don't know theory, they can easily get a slightly worse position with no benefits from this extra tempo. The Nf3-e3 move order doesn't pose any issues and transpose to a normal d4 game after a6. The only move order that puts Minh Le out of his comfort zone is c4-g3 Reti, where he plays the most solid system, g6, and the game transposes to the solid Grunfeld.

Interestingly, against London, Minh Le doesn't have a consistently good system. He prefers playing Qb6 in somewhat unusual moments, but arising positions seem suspicious to me. However, he can get great results due to his immense experience in this structure from the white side. I expected something like the refutation of London, but it seems that Minh Le doesn't consider London an issue when playing black. Against different sidelines, the bishop obviously goes on f5

Black: Sicilian 2...Nf6 & Scandinavian

When playing Sicilian, Minh Le goes for the rare but tricky 2...Nf6 line. The main idea is to provoke the e4-e5 push, where the pawn can become a weakness. Generally speaking, the line is obviously suspicious for black; however, it can give good blitz results because white need to solve concrete problems on the first moves, and very few people know the theory there. Minh Le's pet idea is to return the knight on e7 in the main line and attack the e5 pawn very quickly.

Against Nc3, black goes for d5. The main idea of the system is to exchange a black 'd' pawn for a white 'e' pawn. The appearing structure is very comfortable for black; however, white has few forced reactions where black must remember the theory.

If white play the sidelines, Minh Le doesn't do something unusual and mostly plays mainline theory. The only venomous thing white can do is to start with 2.Nc3 and follow up with 3.Nf3, which prevents Minh Le from entering positions where he is comfortable and knows the ideas well. Against this move order, he goes for the accelerated Dragon.

Another path is Scandinavian, with a simple concept of returning the Queen on d8 followed by developing the bishop on f5. In this line, white has to react very aggressively Ne5-g4; however, this reaction rarely appears on the board, making the line an excellent bitz weapon. The opponents just skip the critical moment, and black gets the excellent position. Nevertheless, when white knows a reaction, the Qd8-Bf5 line barely survives, which is why the line is not the primary weapon of Minh Le but a very useful one nonetheless.

Bonus! What to do against Minh Le?

Considering that Minh Le plays objectively suspicious lines against 1.e4, playing the main line for the e4 players makes sense. I added precise reactions on Sicilian 2...Nf6 as well as Scandinavian Qd8-Bf5. Regarding the suggestion for the d4 players, to my surprise, I recommend playing in London against one of the most prominent London experts! Since he doesn't play challenging systems against the London with black and goes for the early Qb6 - if you remember the reaction, white get a very comfortable position.

For black, I believe the optimal path is to use the drawbacks of the Qc2 concept in the mainline. Black can do it by playing g6-Bf5. Minh Le has pretty good results there; however, nobody played a strong move 9...Nh5 that gives black an excellent game. Additionally, I added the 9.h3 move that saves the f4 bishop if Minh Le decides to deviate from the regular moves after Qc2.

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GM Gordievsky Dmitry