Mariánské Lázně Lesson 7: Robotic Play.

BACK in the days when I regularly played the Morra Gambit, I can remember one of the knocks on it was that whites, at least at club level, tended to play the same moves irrespective of what their opponents played.

The same often applies, I feel, to those who play the London System, as is illustrated by my round-seven game.

It began 1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nc6!? (this should already have alerted my opponent to the fact that the game might not follow normal lines for the London) 3.Bf4 Bg4 4.e3 e6 5.Nbd2 Bd6 6.Bg3, reaching the following position.

White has more-or-less followed the standard formula, as laid down in Wikipedia: White opens with 1.d4 and develops the dark-squared bishop to f4, then  supports the d4-pawn with pawns on e3 and c3. The other bishop is developed to d3 (or occasionally e2) and the knights typically to f3 and d2.

*****

*****

*****

*****

*****

The problem with all this is Black is ready to break in the centre with 6...e5!?

After the further moves 7.dxe5 Nxe5 8.Be2 Nxf3+ 9.Nxf3 Nf6 10.c3!? (still following the formula) 0-0 I had at least equalised, and probably had the easier position to play.

White could have successfully varied from the System as early as move five, when the most-popular move in ChessBase's 2024 Mega database is c4, which scores an excellent 62%.

Stockfish16 and Komodo14.1 reckon c4 is also a good option at move eight.

LESSON: playing 'automatic' moves without properly considering them is a recipe for trouble. As strong players are often reminding the rest of us, knowing the ideas behind the moves of an opening is more important than knowing the moves themselves.