How To Play The London Like STOCKFISH

ladies and gentlemen welcome back to another Gotham chess openings video it's been a while since I made a video on this channel dedicated to the analysis of just a pure straight up chess opening but this one's going to be a little bit unique for those of you that have been watching me for a long time you know that I have a lot of openings videos for those of you that are new to my channel this might even be the first video that you've ever clicked on I have a lot of videos on this channel uh

of chess openings and some of those openings you may know because they're you know mem worthy or very popular like the London system the caroan defense the Sicilian Defense the Vienna in this video we will do a deep dive on how you can play the London system not like a boring Noob that repeats the same moves every single time but like an attacking player who is trying to win all right and do it in the form of stockfish the most powerful computer in the world so uh without further Ado uh let's jump into it that's

the entire int ction I'm wearing my Chesley hoodie Chesley is my educational platform I have a London course on there you can check it out if you haven't already uh and maybe this opening will uh rather maybe this video uh will you know reinvent your perception of this opening uh we are heading to Prague in the Czech Republic the city of many bridges I believe uh and this is a game played between Sam shankland a strong American Grand Master and Edis Edis gerell who is a Turkish Superstar Prodigy chess player now I have another video

on this channel just purely on playing the London so if you clicked on this video and you want to learn how to play this video uh this opening from scratch wrong place to do it but you're still going to learn a lot and you can then go either on to that video or Chesley okay this is the London system it's one of the most underappreciated and over M openings I guilty of the same thing and in a nutshell white just wants a very easy way to develop these pieces then puts up a little pyramid of

Pawns puts the Knight here and puts the bishop here but there is a way to play this opening like an engine like a computer there's a way to play this opening in a very aggressive and dynamic fashion which involves hopping this night into the center of the board very early and actually launching these pawns up the board without ever even castling sometimes so first of all the best way for black to play against this opening is either to it to attack this bishop right away or to play C5 in general your DNC pawns and queen

Pawn games go together in this uh particular game guell chose to play E6 Sam Shanklin played E3 everything is normal so far and then if black plays C5 here which is one of the most common moves you know white obviously has to also build up the pyramid and then put the Knight on in the center on E5 but the move Bishop D6 was the move that was played in the game offering a trade of Bishops now if you have any experience in London and even if you don't you don't take this bishop it just helps

black develop and if anything it stops white you know from hopping in here even at the cost of doubling the pawns but the move that Sam Shanklin played here is this immediate move Knight to E5 this move has gotten very trendy recently and the truth is you can sort of play it all the time and you know even if black plays like this and you go here and then black plays Knight C6 like at some point you can kind of immediately play this move without developing these pieces and the point is you will generate an

attack very quickly on your opponent sometimes you even end up having the time to bring the bishop back and set up what's called a Stonewall formation like this but in general you put the Knight here you put the bishop here and you actually just attack without ever even castling now an important component of this of course is that black castles otherwise well you're I mean you can still probably play like this but black has not castled the in this game it is castled and now the games begin so this is the position and it's a

very unique approach so Sam Shanklin plays Knight D2 because he's preserving the move C uh 3 uh black played C5 and obviously the move C3 appears and now you know black can choose a variety of different moves most players with black pieces will play here they will play this move that's not what ad is played I will show you what ad is played in a second again Bishop D3 black struggles to take here if black takes you take the Knight drops back white continues with the attack and there are already sacrificial and winning ideas by

the way like for example there is this doesn't quite work I wish it did it almost works right the Greek gift sacrifice if you don't know what the Greek gift sacrifice is it's a sacrifice on the AG s Square where the king is the only thing defending it the Knight jumps in the queen comes in and M is delivered it doesn't quite work in this particular instance but the damn near near almost works now the move that ID is played in this game is a very unique move is this move C4 and basically he's saying

well Sam it was stupid if you not to put your Bishop on this Square because now you can't and I'm going to build over here behind this space advantage and here comes this move H4 and like I've already said I have played a lot of these positions in my life for example if we go back to the very beginning one of my favorite openings involves putting the bishop on G5 the palowski or the té and let me just show you how I do it in those positions all right I do a lot of the same

stuff but ultimately what ends up happening is I set up a stone wall first of all then I have a bishop here and when black does this I play H4 I don't castle and I do what's called a fish hook and I put the bait on the end and I immediately attack and if they don't take my Bishop what I end up doing is I end up taking and still launching the gpon forward getting all my pieces over here so this is a similar position as they have in the game except Sam Shanklin has a

bishop only F4 square right so watch and there he goes H4 now already it's actually kind of annoying here to play with black because if you meet this move it's a severe weakening of not just that pawn of also this square and now we have the exact same position that I just showed you except black has a Target here which is obviously going to be exploited so black cannot play H5 can black play H6 no it's actually even worse it's even worse to play H6 because you play G4 this Pawn in front of the castle

King is what we call a hook in chess just in case you didn't know and you target the hook that's what you do that pawn is going to be a hook which can be traded off so it's even worse so the best thing that black can do here is ignore it and Sam Shanklin keeps going now black could maybe play H6 but still we have G4 G5 so he ignores it again Edis and Sam walks the pawn the entire length of the board this what I'm saying this is the London with a little bit of

a spice to it you know what I'm saying and you can incorporate this type of a London into your life or a chowski as I just showed you and now we have this position now again these guys are 2600 ELO Grand Masters they are monsters Edis is not just going to get checkmated but watch as this Pawn puts a nagging pressure on the black position this type of Chess was pioneered in 2017 by Alpha zero I have a video on this channel Alpha zero stockfish Alpha zero was the super computer created by Google Deep Mind

and what it loved to do is Advance H pawns it loved to put flank Pawns in positions like this because in the long run it created enough Terror in the opposing position that made it difficult to sustain the defenses and in the long run if white were to win this Pawn this Pawn would promote so now watch as the entire game goes on right shankland trades the pieces he no longer wants an attack I mean make no mistake he would love to put his Queen on G7 it's just going to be impossible and now watch

as a sustained pressure is applied while the entire game goes on Shanklin would love if we got down to a position where this Pawn was the cause of the collapse of the position for black he would love it and maybe in defending that pawn black overexerted and simply went on to lose so B5 it is doing exactly what he's supposed to do Shanklin meanwhile playing A3 waving him on come get me Bishop D7 notice by the way this type of play leaves black with seven light squared pawns that means black back Black's Bishop is not

particularly happy the bishop would much rather be on h8 defending the king staring at the center ready for the position to open up B should be2 A5 I mean what else are you going to do right it makes sense you're trying to go for B4 now Sam castles this is crazy this is stockfish level chess you push your H Pawn the entire length of the board and now it's just a thorn it's just annoying there's no way to get rid of it you know you would love what if black could play Knight E7 Knight F5

you can't because I'm going to immediately go E4 you don't have time and if black is careless for a second and goes here it's check right and it's game over so you have to be very very very careful so castles and if Black Goes B4 now I'm going to start poking I'm going to start poking maybe we're going to go to an end game you got to defend yourself and suddenly you've lost the pawn so Ed is does play Knight E7 and tries to play Knight F5 now Sam here could play E4 he instead opts

for Rook E1 the move Knight F5 will just run into Queen H3 retreating or even E4 and if you take this your King has to defend this this is not particularly Pleasant for black you probably just losing again why are you losing ridiculous move G4 the idea of G4 is to bring up the king and Rook H1 this is the London on steroids this is not the London that you were taught in a YouTube short or a video that you play the exact same way every single time so Knight E7 Rook e one black plays

Bishop C6 and Sam can continuously in this middle game perhaps the only thing that he did wrong in this game is he wasn't aggressive enough with a Central Pawn break instead he opted for Bishop F3 Bishop F3 is a move that makes a lot of sense he's simply preparing this move and not committing just yet and he's going to control the two Pawn breaks in the position so he can ultimately you know get in cause some damage the Knight will try to jump in ETC now Edis is defending himself he's just playing Rook e eight

but look at the computer valuation it is slowly loving White's position it is absolutely loving the way that he has handled this so B now played all right we are looking to break apart the black position because in the long run that pawn that we pushed is going to be the Difference Maker the Knight goes to F5 Sam defends himself and obviously G4 is always an idea here also Bishop G4 and taking the Knight also E4 a lot of different ideas feeling the pressure eus takes the Knight arrives on the B3 Square now we are

straight up threatening to take a pawn so black goes to defend it and also the Knight will live on C5 it's a very comfortable Outpost tempor Outpost that Knight could obviously trade but Knight C5 is just a very you know nice move problem with it is that black is going to try to win this Pawn so the queen goes to d8 we go Bishop E2 continuous pressure over here black plays Knight D6 s puts the Knight on C5 because now the Black Knight took its eye off the pawn queen E7 now Queen H2 so the

pressure is over here right Sam is putting pressure on that side of the board black plays F6 okay that's a committal decision which fights for some dark squares but potentially creates further long-term weaknesses in the position Bishop G4 that's a very simple one I don't really have to explain that black goes back in defense Again Sam spends this game not making breaks like A4 here now is very very strong according to the computer because the point is that you take bring the bishop back take and infiltrate you just infiltrate with your Rooks that's the plan

Sam makes another improving move still his position is very nice now black is committed to making a pawn Mo Sam goes here I like that move right controlling this the bishop is going to drop back The Rook is going to come here like there's a lot of pressure on the position so he brings this back and by the way can we just say edus I told you the worst Bishop in a long time every Pawn black has is almost on a line Square in fact a few moves ago right it was it it's like every

move Black's light squired pawns are not doing him any justice Rook here Bishop G4 Bishop D7 now Sam senses this is the moment he goes E4 the only move that black has here not to lose the game is to sacrifice The Rook it's a defensive measure he's going to do this and now Sam counter sacrifices the rook and we have this position so ultimately this Pawn is still a massive massive Difference Maker it's still controlling the king and in the long run if that pawn Falls Black's entire position falls apart because obviously I will promote

so black has to worry about that pawn now white also has another Pawn over here that's a weakness that's a weakness and we have the defile Queen C7 look at this move F5 counterattacking measure but that's a fatal mistake it was better here for black to play Rook C8 this was the only defensive move and I guess he must have felt the pressure here or maybe he didn't like Queen B7 or something because he cannot take the pawn on C5 here he had to go King F7 this was the only way to survive Rook takes

B5 black has to find another key move and that's how you have to survive the position but after Queen C7 F5 was played and this is losing this is losing now because here the move Rook D1 attacking the bishop wins the game for white you leave this bishop to perish you get in with the rook and it's game over I'm not sure why Sam didn't play this move maybe he didn't like some form of counterplay I'm really not sure maybe he didn't like Rook F7 but this is a totally winning position because if black tries

to create counterplay well kind of funny you just go back and black is totally lost but instead of that instead of that you know chess doesn't always have clean finishes the bishop went back to E2 and now again the move King F7 is the Saving Grace but clearly feeling the pressure here gell must have just thought that he was losing anyway because his position is falling apart and may I just say every problem presented throughout this game for the black position continued until move 38 this is the 38th move of the game can you believe

that 38 moves the pawn is still there almost every other Pawn in White's position is on a dark Square by the way G3 will be played shortly and every Pawn white has is on a dark Square every single Pawn that black has is on a light square and black has problems here both with the fact that the queen is much more powerful these pieces are tied up and the king is weak the king is weak because m is always threatened in the future and that pawn is always weak it's a really really big problem look

at this bishop takes B5 totally winning position gerell goes for counter play he's losing his Bishop of course he can't take the bishop because he's going to loses Queen Bishop takes D7 Pawn takes F2 King takes and the final Pawn every Pawn that white has ended up on a dark Square every pun that black has stayed on a light Square for the duration of the game a tragedy right now the only saving grace here for black is he can give an infinite amount of checks and if you don't know repeating a position three times in

chess in the form of checks is called Perpetual check and in this position would save the game so you're going to give a lot of checks but the white king is going to go running he runs across the board and guess who's going to protect him over there the queen queen B5 you can give some more checks it doesn't really matter Bishop C6 and in this position black resigned black resigned because because what's going to happen is he's going to ultimately lose the pawn and then he's going to go on and lose the game and

the craziest thing about this whole thing just like in case you wanted to know in a nutshell is this this Pawn won white the game this is what happens when you play the London like a superc computer sometimes it leads to just Brutal checkmates by using your H&G pawns and other times it leads to a deep long run into the end game where the literal like the biggest problem of the black position is something that you caused and it it's it it was a problem throughout this game throughout this entire middle game black struggled to

come up with a plan it was really difficult for him to mobilize his Pawn structure because he felt like his King was so weak that's why he went here and for a moment it looked like he had a little bit of a safety net white just kept attacking and Sam might have not broken at you know the exact moment that the computer blasted had a couple of other moments but he went for this ultimately if black had defended himself perfectly this would be a video about like incredible and tenacious defense but that doesn't always happen

you know what I'm saying uh this is a way to handle your your londons uh with a degree of you know of stockfish this H4 stuff H4 G4 stuff this is this is really really nasty stuff I'm telling you guys like especially when the opponent castles so if you're a London player try to play like this in your next few games leave this Knight here reinforce this Knight either reinforce it by dropping the bishop back and putting the pawn on F4 by the way if you play the trompowsky attack when the bishop is on G5

all the same stuff applies E3 C3 Knight D2 Bishop D3 and then just start you know delay your castling ultimately what this has to do with the fact is that white delayed the castling in this particular game white castled after you know getting to this deep deep position but sometimes you can literally just not castle and like I have already said when the opponent tries to defend against you it actually just makes things worse they could play Knight H7 you still go G5 and before they know it they're getting checkmated this is how you play

the London system but don't behave like a total dork okay this is how you play the London system if you want to beat people aggressively and not just you know bore them to death try this in your own games uh if you don't play the London that's okay uh you know it's kind of like it's one of these like really bad flues that you can get sick with that like doesn't go away you ever gotten sick and then you have a cough that like stays around for a month and a half that's kind of like

the London system you know once you get it you kind of get a little bit sick in the head and physically but uh I'm just joking it it's it's honestly if you don't play the London in a lazy way where you just put the exact same moves every single time castle it's actually quite cool so I like the way that Sam Shanklin handled this advancing his AG H Pawn up the board without castling creating a long-term weakness in the black position and he went on to win a very very nice positional game uh try this

out in your own games all right a little bit of stockfish infusion and if you like this type of content where I analyze practical games played at a high level in openings that are very popular like London caran Vienna whatever it is uh let me know in the comments uh and I can do more of these as always if you'd like to uh get better at openings middle games tactics whatever whether you're beginner intermediate player or advanced check out my educational platform Chesley there is always a link in the description there is a 7-Day free

trial that you can uh test out openings no card is required not a gimmick not a scam and uh that's all that's all I've got for you today get out of here