One of the most reliable methods of frustrating chess computers is to play 1 d4 but then avoid the well-trodden paths of the Queen’s Gambit, in favour of delaying central occupation with c4. Instead white aims for an early e3, possibly supported by the queenside bishop fianchetto, or Bf4. The former is known as the Colle Attack, while the latter is called The London System.
Such great masters as Zukertort, Capablanca, Alekhine and even our reigning world champion Magnus Carlsen, have used these less explored ways of entering the middlegame. Now the ever-industrious Cyrus Lakdawala has attempted to impose order and structure on the various transpositional possibilities and multifarious strategic motifs in his instructional new book First Steps: Colle and London Systems
Yusupov-Luch: Warsaw Rapid 2005; Colle System
1 d4 Nf6 2 Nf3 e6 3 e3 d5 4 Bd3 Be7 5 Nbd2 0-0 6 0-0 b6 This is the Colle versus the Queen’s Indian, but with Black’s d-pawn committed to d5.
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