Chess: Breaking 2000, Another London System Win

I've broken the "2000 barrier" at ICC correspondence. WooHoo!

Earlier, I stated that I had tried the London System and had found it wanting for correspondence chess. Despite that, it seems that I am getting the better position in some games using the London. In others the opponent is simply misplaying the position. Regardless of the success I've had with the London, I still think I will not use it in correspondence from here out. It seems to me that I have had to grind out each game in this system and it hasn't been fun. Enjoyment is in itself perhaps the best factor in choosing an opening system.

[Event "ICC correspondence 2007Seven.02.05"]
[Site "Internet Chess Club"]
[Date "2007.08.25"]
[Round "-"]
[White "sdo1"]
[Black "az2112"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "D02"]
[WhiteElo "1956"]
[BlackElo "1592"]
[Opening "Queen's pawn game: London System"]
[NIC "QP.08"]

1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Bf4 e6 4. e3 c5 5. c3 Nc6 6. Nbd2 Bd6 7. Bg3 O-O 8. Bd3 Qe7 9. Ne5 Nd7 10. f4 f6 11. Nxd7 Bxd7 12. O-O Rac8 13. Qe2

This is another good London System setup. Black, when playing against the London, must always be on guard for tactics against his King side pawns, particularly the h7 pawn. Here, the protective g6 Knight is gone and the light Bishop has sighted in on h7. The Queen has free access to the light King side squares and can easily join an attack on h7 if Black ignores the weakness. Otherwise, Black has a good position and can defend, as long as he defends accurately. Black is well on his way to equalization and has possibilities of an attack after his King is secured. Some would say that Black even stands a bit better in this position. Black's pawns have more flexibility, his pieces are more central, and he has the promise of a center break at his time of choosing. Unfortunately, for Black, he chooses to try the break too soon.

13. ...e5? 14. fxe5 fxe5 15. Qh5

This is the result of the early ...e5. The Queen invades and there is no good way to prevent the Bishop's attack resulting in either a won pawn with a fractured King side, or a Bishop sac for a complete removal of the two protective King pawns.

15. ...g6 16. Bxg6 hxg6

Other tries were ...Bb8 and ...Qg7.

17. Qxg6+ Kh8 18. Qh6+ Kg8 19. Bh4 Qe6

This was simply a flier for Black. He will certainly lose material anyway, this desperado was worth trying.

20. Bf6 Kf7? 21. Qh5+ Kg8 22. Qg6#

20...Kf7 leads directly to mate.

The lesson in this game is glaring, Black must always guard against an attack on his h7 when White exchanges off the g6 Knight in the London. Against this system, it is probably best not to post the Queen Knight aggressively to c6, but instead to d7 where it supports the defense of the King side and a c5 push. The London player, much like the Colle player, is looking to attack the g and h pawns in front of the King. The light Bishop, while having as his first duty the support of the e4 push, is optimally poised to take advantage of the absence of a g6 Knight, and with the Queen makes a happy battery to hammer at h7.

Chess: Another London Win, a Caro Kann Draw

[Event "ICC correspondence 2007Quad.08.02"]
[Site "Internet Chess Club"]
[Date "2007.08.18"]
[White "sdo1"]
[Black "The7thGuest"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "1971"]
[BlackElo "2035"]
[ICCResult "Black resigns"]
[Opening "King's Indian: London system"]
[ECO "A48"]
[NIC "QP.03"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 g6 3. Bf4 Bg7 4. e3 O-O 5. Nc3



This is a thematic and positional mistake. White should play the Knight to d2 instead of c3 if developing before moving the c pawn in any case, and especially in the London where c3 is a support for d4 and the Knight at d2 helps support the thematic e4 push coming later.

5. ...d6 6. h3 Nbd7 7. Bd3 c5 8. O-O a6 9. a4 b6



I was not happy with my position. The fifth move still irked me. In OTB play that would probably have been enough to lose the game for me, and as improving real time play is a reason I play correspondence, perhaps I can translate the experience into a beneficial mindset OTB. The position, while not what I wanted, is still a good one and 9. a4 took steam out of any expansion Black had wanted Queen side.

10. d5 h6 11. e4 g5 12. Bh2 g4 13. hxg4 Nxg4 14. Bg3 Nde5 15. Nxe5 Nxe5 16. Re1



Black lashed out with his King side pawns and his Knights, but I think he only damaged his position. The dark Bishop is still a nuisance to him, his Knight's post is temporary, and his King has a lot of open attacking ground to the front. My goal from here was to exchange off his King side pieces while getting my pieces to the King side. If he didn't exchange off his Knight for the light Bishop, I had several candidate plans with the f and e pawns and the e file to get my pieces into the action. One enticing target is the isolated h pawn.

16. ...Bd7 17. Qh5 Bg4 18. Qh2 Nxd3 19. cxd3 Ra7 20. Re3 Kh7 21. Bf4 Rh8 22. Rg3 Bd7 23. Re1 b5



I thought 23...b5 was a mistake. I was expecting something to get the Queen involved in the center or King side defense. Perhaps Qf8, e5, or f6 were better defensive tries.


24. Qh5 Qf8 25. e5 dxe5 26. Bxe5 Rg8 27. Ne4



Now my pieces are all on the King side and in great attacking position. Black doesn't have time to do anything on the Queen side with his pawns and Rook and still defend the King.

27. ...Bxe5 28. Qxe5 Rxg3 29. Nxg3 Bc8



After the exchanges and the retreat of the Bishop, White's pieces are still in attacking position, the Black King is still exposed to those pieces, the Black Queen is the only Black piece directly defending the King but is very over worked. The ISO doubled d pawns can't be exploited and the d5 pawn will soon advance into the Black position. The Black Queen side is ready to give up material.

The White Queen rules all, attacking in every direction and in command of the board.

30. axb5 axb5 31. Rc1 Bd7 32. Rxc5 f6 33. Qe3 Ra2 34. Rc7 {Black resigns} 1-0



33...Qf7 or Qe8 probably gave the most resistance. Ra2 loses material very quickly. After 34...Qd8 35. d6 the e pawn will fall and Black will be compelled to lose more material.

In the other game of our match (2007Quad.08.01) I relied on my trusted Caro Kann against the higher rated player. The Caro Kann player must not fear the exchange of his light Bishop, and in fact he must be able to embrace it in several lines of the Classical variation. The tempi invested by White in the exchange should allow Black more than enough compensation.

In this game the CK lives up to its dull reputation as both players could find no chinks in the opposition's defense.

[Event "ICC correspondence 2007Quad.08.01"]
[Site "Internet Chess Club"]
[Date "2007.08.18"]
[Round "-"]
[White "The7thGuest"]
[Black "sdo1"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[WhiteElo "2055"]
[BlackElo "1969"]
[ICCResult "Game drawn by mutual agreement"]
[Opening "Caro-Kann: classical variation"]
[ECO "B18"]
[NIC "CK.10"]

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Bf5 5. Ng3 Bg6 6. Nf3 Nf6 7. Nh4 e6 8. Nxg6 hxg6 9. c3 Nbd7 10. Bd3 Bd6 11. Qf3 e5 12. Be3 exd4 13. Bxd4 Qe7+ 14. Qe2 Be5 15. Bxe5 Nxe5 16. O-O-O O-O-O 17. Bc2 Qc7 18. Rxd8+ Rxd8 19. h3 Re8 20. Rd1 Ned7 21. Qd2 Nb6 22. Kb1 Kb8 23. Qg5 a6 24. Bb3 Nbd5 25. Qh4 Qe5 26. Qc4 Qc7 {Draw (Black Offered)} 1/2-1/2

Chess: London System vs. the KID

[Event "ICC correspondence 2007Seven.02.03"]
[Site "Internet Chess Club"]
[Date "2007.08.25"]
[Round "-"]
[White "sdo1"]
[Black "AntonioMendonca"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "A48"]
[WhiteElo "1959"]
[BlackElo "1656"]
[Opening "King's Indian: London system"]
[NIC "QP.03"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 g6 3. Bf4 Bg7 4. e3 O-O 5. Nbd2 d6 6. Be2 Nbd7 7. h3 Re8 8. c3 e5 9. Bg3 Nh5 10. Bh4 Nhf6 11. dxe5 Nxe5 12. O-O



Again, a classic position for the London player.

12. ...Bd7 13. Nxe5 Rxe5 14. Bf3 Rb8 15. Ne4 h6 16. Qd4 b6 17. Rfd1 g5 18. Bg3 Re6 19. Nxf6+ Bxf6 20. Qd3 Qe8 21. Qc4 c5?



21...c5 ruins Black's game. White had sallied 21. Qc4 to see if the light squares could be exploited. 21...Qc8 gives Black plenty of recourse and the game is about even. With 21...c5, Black has left the d6 pawn en prise, permanently weakens light squares across the board (exacerbated by 17...g5), and leaves f7 and g8 open to pressure from a Queen-Bishop battery via a pin on the Rook. Instead of grabbing the pawn, I decided to take the exchange on the e Rook. Even without the support of the light Bishop, the Queen will invade the Queen side via the light squares and force Black to give up material after attrition of forces.

22. Bd5 Rd8 23. Bxe6 Bxe6 24. Qe2 d5 25. a4 Bg7 26. Qa6 Qe7 27. a5 Bc8 28. Qb5 Bd7 29. Qe2 Bc6 30. axb6 axb6 31. Qa6 Qb7 32. Qxb7 Bxb7 33. Bc7
{Black Resigns} 1-0

With no possibility of preventing White from accumulating further material, Black resigned.

Chess: My First Result Using the London System

[Event "ICC correspondence 2007Seven.02.01"]
[Site "Internet Chess Club"]
[Date "2007.08.25"]
[Round "-"]
[White "sdo1"]
[Black "John3v16"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "A40"]
[WhiteElo "1969"]
[BlackElo "1807"]
[Opening "Queen's pawn"]
[NIC "QO.17"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 e6 3. Bf4 c5 4. e3 Be7 5. c3 b6 6. h3 Bb7 7. Nbd2 O-O 8. Bd3 d6 9. O-O Nbd7 10. Re1



This is the setup the London player wants as White against almost any defense.


10 ...h6 11. e4 cxd4 12. cxd4 a6 13. Qe2 b5 14. a4 b4 15. Rac1 Nb6
16. a5 Na4



I thought Black's 16th was a positional mistake. I would have favored Nbd7 instead. His Knight is on the rim away from the action and will not be able to escape to re-enter the game. The attacks on the Knight will draw Black's pieces away from the action, and I don't see how Black could avoid losing material in the Knight's defense, anyway.

17. Bc2 Bc6 18. Qc4 Qd7 19. Qb3 g5 20. Bxd6



Black's 19 ...g5 allows White to win the d pawn and possibly remove a defender (Bishop) of b4. Black's choice to keep the Knight instead of the Bishop (on 21. e5 Nd5) is also a poorer choice. The Bishop had more range and is needed in defense more than the Knight.

20 ...Bxd6 21. e5 Nd5 22. exd6 Qxd6 23. Ra1 Nf6 24. Ne5



The Knight at a4 is en prise. Ne5 attacks the defenders, but more importantly, clears the way for the Queen to enter the King side to attack the King's open position and unsecured f6-Knight.

24 ...Bb5 25. Qf3 Qxd4 26. Qxf6 1-0



Black falls for the trap with 25 ...Qxd4. After 26. Qxf6 Black resigned, as he pointed out 26 ...Qxd2 27. Ng6! wins for White. Black must either sacrifice his Queen at f2, or be mated.