London System Finally Defeated | Road to GM, Game 60

Round 5 of the 2019 Doprastav Open played in Bratislava. I finally got a chance to play the new system I prepared against the London System and it worked like a charm!

In the afternoon of day three I faced an equally rated opponent with no preparation. I only had an hour in between rounds as my morning game took long, so I had no idea what my opponent played (there were also almost no games of his online).

So I had some coffee in the city center and grabbed a bit to eat to relax before the game as there was nothing I could do. When I play black unprepared for my opponent I’m not as concerned as when I have white because my repertoire is rather narrow, and there isn’t really much my opponent could do to catch me off guard.

I have prepared a new weapon against the London System for a league game I played a month ago. Unfortunately, my opponent didn’t play that game so my prep couldn’t be utilized. I got to use it here though! I was very happy when I saw d4, Nf3, Bf4 on the board because I was ready! I have a bad score against it and I’ve tried several different things against it and none of them seems to work.

I knew the opening well and I blitzed out the moves while my opponent thought and spent time. The result was an equal position on move 5! Which is quite a lot with black!

It was equal or roughly equal for the most of the game but I managed to get a tiny advantage in the middlegame with a pawn push on the queenside and built on it until it increased. To be honest my opponent did help me out by weakening his light squares too. In the end, my small edge turned into a winning advantage!

Pinter J. (1903) vs S. Tomic (1859), 2019 Doprastav Open, Bratislava, Round 5, 04/20/2019, London System

1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Bf4 c5 4. e3 Qb6 5. b3 Bg4 6. Be2 e6 7. O-O Nc6 8. dxc5 Bxc5 9. Ne5 Bxe2 10. Qxe2 O-O 11. Nd2 Nxe5 12. Bxe5 Nd7 13. Bb2 Be7 14. c4 Bf6 15. Bxf6 Nxf6 16. cxd5 Nxd5 17. Rac1 Rac8 18. Nc4 Qa6 19. Qb2 b5 20. Ne5 b4 21. Rxc8 Rxc8 22. h3 Nc3 23. Ra1 Qb5 24. Nc4 Rd8 25. a3 a5 26. axb4 axb4 27. Qd2 Qb8 28. Qc2 g6 29. g3 Qb7 30. Re1 Ra8 31. Qd3 Qf3 32. Nd2 Qf6 33. Kg2 Ra2 34. Rf1 Qe5 35. Nc4 Qd5+ 36. Qxd5 exd5 37. Nd6 0-1

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