OpeningsPlay as white

The London Family: One Setup for Everything

Learn the London as a structure, not a move list — the pawn skeleton, where the pieces go, the three plans that come out of it, and its Colle and Torre cousins.

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Introduction

Most players learn the London as a line: 1. d4, 2. Bf4, 3. e3, and then they are on their own. This lesson teaches it as a structure. White builds the same pawn skeleton — c3, d4, e3 — and puts the same pieces on the same squares whether Black plays ..d5, ..e6, ..c5 or ..g6. Once the setup is on the board, three plans do almost all the work: a knight on e5 backed by f4, the bishop on d3 looking at h7, and the c4 break when Black sits still. The Colle and the Torre Attack use the very same skeleton with the dark-squared bishop on a different square — so by the end you will know three openings, not one. Every position below is taken from a real master game.

Lesson Content

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Kamsky – Nakamura, US Championship 2015, after 8. Bd3. Start with the pawns: c3, d4 and e3 form a small pyramid in which every pawn guards another. Black has already struck at it with ..c5 and ..d5, and it does not matter — d4 is guarded by two pawns and the knight on f3, so neither ..cxd4 nor a knight landing on d4 wins a pawn. Now the piece that makes it the London: the dark-squared bishop left c1 before e3 was played, and after Black's ..Bd6 challenge it stepped back to g3. It lives *outside* the pawn chain, where it keeps the h2-b8 diagonal and still guards the kingside. Play e3 first and that bishop is shut in for the whole game — that one move order is the London's whole secret.

Pawn StructurePiece Activity

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1. ..Bd3

Here is the same game one move earlier. The knights are already on their London squares — f3 and d2, since c3 is a pawn — and the light-squared bishop belongs on d3: from there it looks straight at h7, the square next to Black's king, and supports a later e4 push. Castling comes next. One more piece has a fixed job: when Black's queen comes to b6 to hit b2, White's queen goes to b3 to meet her. Remember that — a later step shows what happens when you forget it.

DevelopmentKing Safety

Alternative Moves

Ne5 — The outpost is the right idea at the wrong moment: 8...Qc7 9.Nxc6 Qxc6 trades the knight away before the bishop and king are ready, and White has simply traded the attacking knight off — the position is level instead of slightly better.

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2. Ne5

Plan one: the e5 outpost. Carlsen – Tomashevsky, Wijk aan Zee 2016. The d4-pawn makes e5 a square a white knight can hold for good: no black pawn can ever attack it without ..f6, which would leave e6 and the king loose. From e5 the knight hits f7 and g6 and clears the way for the f-pawn. Notice Black's kingside: the h-pawn is already gone, so the h-file is open towards the king. Carlsen's knight is the first piece to point at it.

Piece ActivityKing Attack

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2. ..f4

Tomashevsky pushed 15. ..g5 to keep the f-pawn out. 16. f4 goes anyway: if Black takes, 16. ..gxf4 17. Rf1 brings the rook to the f-file against f6 and f7, and the pawn that kept that file closed is gone. In the game the queen followed to h5 and h4 down the open h-file, the rook recaptured on f4, and White won in 30 moves. Knight on e5, then f4 — that is the London's main attacking plan, and it works the same way in every ..d5 setup.

King AttackPawn Structure

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3. Bxh7+

Plan two: the bishop on d3 cashes in. Rusev – Hracek, Croatian Team Championship 2015. This is a London by move order — 3. Bf4 came early, but White then chose 5. Nc3 and recaptured on d4, and after ..Bxc3 the c-pawns are doubled and the d-pawn is gone, so there is no c3-d4-e3 pyramid here. The pieces, though, are on London squares: knight on e5, bishop on d3, queen on f3, all aimed at the king. 14. Bxh7+ Kxh7 15. Nxf7 attacks the queen on d8 — and the white bishop on d6 covers c7 and e7, her only flight squares. In the game Black tried 15. ..Bb7; after 16. Qd3+ Kg8 17. Nxd8 White had won the queen and two pawns for a bishop and a knight — about five pawns' worth of material, a decisive lead. The pattern to remember: Bd3 and Ne5 together make h7 and f7 the two weakest squares on the board.

SacrificeKing Attack

Alternative Moves

Rfe1 — A normal developing move hands the moment back. Black answers 14...Bb7, and now 15.Bxh7+ Kxh7 16.Nxf7 is met by 16...Qc8 — the bishop has vacated c8, so the queen has a flight square and White, a bishop down for two pawns, has at most a perpetual check — equal at best. The sacrifice only wins right now.

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3. ..c4

Plan three: the c4 break against a passive Black. Karjakin – Leko, Beijing 2013. Black has set up small — pawns on b6, d6 and e6, no ..d5, no pawn past the sixth rank. There is no king attack here because there is no target yet. Instead White converts the c3-pawn into a c4 pawn: together with d4 it takes d5 away from every black piece for good and claims the whole centre, and e4 and b4 follow. Black's only freeing break, ..e5, is hard to arrange — Leko was squeezed for the rest of the game and resigned after White's 67th move. The c3-pawn is a hinge: it supports d4 while Black fights for the centre, and it steps to c4 when Black stops fighting.

SpaceCenter Control

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4. Qb3

The reflex to build. Tristan – Chigaev, 2024, against a ..g6 setup. The moment the bishop left c1, the b2-pawn lost its only defender — and Black's queen on b6 is attacking it right now. 7. Qb3 defends b2 and offers a queen trade; after 7. ..Qxb3 8. axb3 White's structure is intact and the a-file half-open for the rook. In the game White played the natural 7. Nbd2 instead and 7. ..Qxb2 8. Nc4 Qxc3+ took two pawns with check. Black won. The engine finds Nbd2 playable (about a third of a pawn worse at most), but why give up two pawns and the initiative for nothing? Every London setup needs this reflex: queen to b6 means check b2 before you develop anything.

ThreatProphylaxis

Alternative Moves

Nbd2 — Development as usual — and 7...Qxb2 takes a pawn, then 8.Nc4 Qxc3+ takes a second one with check. White gets some tempo chasing the queen, but is two pawns down on the board for it — the engine rates it only about a third of a pawn in Black's favour, yet in the game Black kept the pawns and won.

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4. ..Nb5

The typical London tactic — b2 as bait. Kveinys – Sulskis, Tallinn 2015. White left b2 hanging on purpose with 5. Nc3, and Black took it: 6. ..Qxb2. Now 7. Nb5 threatens Nc7+, a knight fork of the king on e8 and the rook on a8 that wins the rook — c7 is also hit by the bishop on f4, so nothing can cover it. Black had to play 7. ..Nd5 to guard c7, and then 8. Rb1 chased the queen again. The queen spent the whole opening running while White developed everything; Kveinys won in 24 moves. The difference from the previous step: there, b2 just fell. Here, Nc3 made the knight jump to b5 available — so the pawn was poison.

ForkTempo

Alternative Moves

Bd2 — Covers c3 but asks the queen nothing: 7...Qb6 and she is home again, a clean pawn up for Black, and White's lead in development has bought nothing.

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Cousin one: the Colle System. Rahman – Ganguly, Kolkata 2009. Compare with the first position: the same c3-d4-e3 pyramid, knights on f3 and d2, bishop on d3, king castled — and Black has the same ..c5, ..d5, ..Nc6, ..Bd6. The one difference is the bishop still sitting on c1, inside the chain. That bishop is the Colle's price and its plan: White must open a line for it. Rahman did it with 8. dxc5 Bxc5 9. b4 and 10. Bb2, the Zukertort way; the other way is the e3-e4 break, which also frees the bishop and opens the centre while Black's pieces are still on their starting squares.

Pawn StructureDevelopment

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Cousin two: the Torre Attack. Turner – Saric, Dublin 2019. Once more the pyramid c3-d4-e3, knights on f3 and d2, bishop on d3, king on g1. This time the dark-squared bishop went to g5 before e3 and now stands on h4 after Black's ..h6. It presses the knight on f6 — the piece that guards h7 and e4 — instead of the h2-b8 diagonal. Three openings, one skeleton: London (bishop on f4 or g3), Colle (bishop home on c1), Torre (bishop on g5 or h4). Learn where the bishop is, and you already know the plans.

Pawn StructurePiece Activity

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London, Colle and Torre are one family. What exactly do they share?

Pawn Structure

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Black has castled and set up with pawns on b6, d6 and e6 — no ..d5. You have the full London setup. Which plan fits this position?

SpaceKing Attack

Key Takeaways

Skeleton first: c3-d4-e3, Nf3, Nbd2, Bd3, O-O — the same against ...d5, ...e6, ...c5 and ...g6
The dark-squared bishop leaves c1 before e3; its square (f4, c1, g5) tells London, Colle and Torre apart
Plan one: Ne5 then f4 — plan two: Bxh7+ when Ne5 and the queen are ready — plan three: c4 when Black has no ...d5
...Qb6 hits b2 the moment Bf4 is played: answer with Qb3, or with Nc3 so that ...Qxb2 meets Nb5
Pick the plan from the position in front of you, not from a memorised move list

Now play it through

Step through every move on a real board, try the wrong ones, and ask Knighty why they fail.

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Summary

The London is a structure: the c3-d4-e3 pyramid, knights on f3 and d2, bishop on d3, king on g1 — and the dark-squared bishop outside the chain because it moved before e3. From that setup three plans do the work: a knight on e5 followed by f4, the Bd3 strike on h7 once Ne5 is in place, and the c4 break when Black sits still. Guard b2 the moment a queen lands on b6 — or have Nc3 ready so that Nb5 punishes the grab. The Colle and the Torre are the same skeleton with the bishop on c1 or g5.

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