I am a lowly rated player and play other lowly rated players. I've had many fun and spectacular wins as white with the London system after studying Ginger_GM and @FunnyAnimatorJimTV's study lichess.org/study/KjivNw7F. I almost always get in trouble when Black plays the copycat line. 1. d4 d5 2. Bf4 Bf5. I've looked at the study chapter on this which was helpful. I get into trouble though with the following line. 1 d4 d5 2. bf4 bf5 3. c4 e5 4. Nc3 c6 5. Qb3 (the key idea). The idea is that Black must bring his queen to Qb6 and then white plays c5 and Black should (study says must) take the White Queen and then white gets an open a file. However, several times I have faced Black playing 5 ... b6. I feel like white is worse in this position and I've lost several games like this. What's the plan for white? I feel like White's queen is off in no man's land and the Black bishop at f5 is a real pain. Black has a nice pawn structure. So, what's the best plan for white here? Thanks!
@swiperthefox
5...b6 6.cxd5.
If black takes with the e-pawn then he'll have a horrible weakness on c6 that you can pile up on with Rc1, Nf3, e3, Ne5 etc.
If they take with the c-pawn to avoid the weakness, Nb5! If black defends with ...Na6, Qa4 threatening the knight and a double check and black is lost.
If b6 did not fail tactically like this, usually it is still not a great way to defend the pawn. It weakens the light squares even more and white can exploit the a4-e8 diagonal. If there is no exploit white still has a better position with more development (b6 was not a developing move). Simply develop pieces: Rc1, Nf3, e3, Be2, h3 to save the f4 bishop, and keep building and building pressure on the queenside where you can eventually invade with your major pieces. Hope this helped :) Keep developing
An example, sort of
5...b6 6.cxd5.
If black takes with the e-pawn then he'll have a horrible weakness on c6 that you can pile up on with Rc1, Nf3, e3, Ne5 etc.
If they take with the c-pawn to avoid the weakness, Nb5! If black defends with ...Na6, Qa4 threatening the knight and a double check and black is lost.
If b6 did not fail tactically like this, usually it is still not a great way to defend the pawn. It weakens the light squares even more and white can exploit the a4-e8 diagonal. If there is no exploit white still has a better position with more development (b6 was not a developing move). Simply develop pieces: Rc1, Nf3, e3, Be2, h3 to save the f4 bishop, and keep building and building pressure on the queenside where you can eventually invade with your major pieces. Hope this helped :) Keep developing
An example, sort of
Thank you so much for your thoughtful reply! Makes sense!!
Hello,
These are the lines given by Ginger GM in it's youtube videos :
(with a tricky variation i learnt by heart in the case the opponent falls in.)
I personnaly prefer the line which didn't play c4 immediately
An other example where I beat a 2202 rated player with this line.
These are the lines given by Ginger GM in it's youtube videos :
(with a tricky variation i learnt by heart in the case the opponent falls in.)
I personnaly prefer the line which didn't play c4 immediately
An other example where I beat a 2202 rated player with this line.
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