After looking at Sverre Johnsen's Blog I've been educated about other sources for the London System.

There is a complete book dedicated to the London called Das London System (by Schmucker). 

Apparently, there are sections on the London System in a number of books:

How to Beat 1.d4 (James Rizzitano)
The Chess Advantage in Black and White (Larry Kaufman)
How to Succeed in Queen Pawn Openings (Watson and Schiller)
Secrets of Opening Surprizes 5
New in Chess Yearbook 83

Maybe some players can inform us about the number of pages devoted to the London in this lot of five and give us a "bare bones" description of the lines covered. 

I've overlooked a couple of books that are not devoted exclusively to the London System but give it attention.    

IM John Cox has about twenty pages devoted to the London System in his monograph titled Dealing With the d4 Deviations (Ch 5, p.59-78). The total page count for this monograph is 144. The lines he discusses are: 

1.d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 e6 3.Bf4 c5
1.d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 e6 3.Bf4 d5
1.d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3.Bf4 c5

Also, GM Joe Gallagher wrote nine pages to analyze two London System games (Zach vs. Bangiev and Yusupov vs. Tukmakov) in his monograph called Beating the Anti-King's Indians. (191 pages)

This, hopefully, gets very, very near to the end of the London System resources list.

I want to be the first to recognize the clarification GM Prie has given in his header to the d-Pawn Specials:

"I dare to maintain that the bishop's sortie 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.Bf4! (especially in comparison with the 'diminishing' 3.e3...) is remarkably well adapted to the information Black has so far given about his intended set-up. That is not entirely the case after 2...g6 and even less after 2...d5, as my opponents often play in order to skip 1.d4 d5 2.Bf4.

I am convinced that 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 represents the core of the "d-Pawn Specials" around which everything has to be constructed."

It seems that after 1...d5 the London Bishop should scoot up the aisle.  

Maybe I've been too hasty here in claiming GM Prie's preference for 1.d4 d5 2.Bf4 since the "mission statement" in d-Pawn Specials is:

"I dare to maintain that the bishop's sortie 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.Bf4! (especially in comparison with the 'diminishing' 3.e3...) is remarkably well adapted to the information Black has so far given about his intended set-up...."

I admit that I'm a little confused here as 1.d4 d5 is NOT in this sequence. Maybe that mission statement is not a mission statement or maybe it's a mission statement that needs expansion. I'm having a hard time keeping up here. Any thoughts to help out here?

Sometimes, when playing against much weaker - on paper - opposition e.g. first round of a swiss (or even last round of a swiss if I sucked during the tourney ), I have experimented with:

1. d4 d5, 2. Nf3 Nf6, 3. b3?!

I even managed to get some proper C-Z out of that move order

I don't know if that is playable though

To clarify MNb's last reply, I think he is referring to GM Prie's comment: Quote:
where our guide proposes 3...c5, not 2...c6 as MNb suggested in his last post.

Obviously, MNb is not a subscriber to d-Pawn Specials as he would know that GM Prie's August Update has commentary to address his query. 

It's also interesting to note that IM Richard Palliser dissuades his readers from playing into 1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.e3 because of 3...g6. See page 14 in Starting Out: The Colle. However, he does not go as far as to decide the third move for his readers beyond giving the  list: 3.Bg5, 3.Bf4, 3.Nc3, and, of course, 3.c4. Since this is a d-pawn Special Forum, the 3.Nc3 and 3.Bg5 option might be worth a comment or two.

Our central idea here is to, at least, briefly discuss the other possibilities -- 3.Bg5 and 3.Nc3 -- since GM Prie has started to chop down trees (preparing a homeland?) for us in forest of 3.Bf4. 

As we stand by and watch GM Prie's progress, we might consider keeping in mind the work done in Sverre Johnsen's book Win With the London System and Lane's book, Ideas Behind Modern Chess Openings. There might even be an 'older idea' in hard-to-find book, The London System, by Andrew Soltis. Surely, they all provide the hindsight here. Have I missed any relevant sources?

Quote:


Further to what MNb stated:
1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 

Though 2...Nf6 is played 62% of the time and 2...e6 is played 12% of the time, the strongest players are pushing their c7 pawn here (either to c6 (11%) or c5 (4%)). 

The other moves of the position are: 2...Nc6 6%; 2...Bf5 4%; and 2...Bg4 1%.

I didn't bother given the delayed Grunfeld move order 1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.e3 g6 but it still stands as a potential deterrent to White's 3.e3, just as MNb states.