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Normal Topic GMs playing both the London (W) and the French (B) (Read 1741 times)
mangler
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Re: GMs playing both the London (W) and the French (B)
Reply #3 - 01/01/12 at 19:23:34
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GM Vlatko Kovacevic wrote a book on the London, and beat Fischer in a famous game with the French (his main defence to 1.e4). Seems he likes the Nimzo (among others) vs 1.d4.
  
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ericmittens
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Re: GMs playing both the London (W) and the French (B)
Reply #2 - 01/01/12 at 19:03:42
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Kamsky comes to mind, though he plays the London rarely these days. There was a time around 2007 (around his match with topalov) that he was collaborating with Yuri Shulman and playing the french quite a lot. He's also a big exponent of the a6 slav.
  
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fling
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Re: GMs playing both the London (W) and the French (B)
Reply #1 - 01/01/12 at 13:13:13
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HoemberChess wrote on 01/01/12 at 12:24:47:
Happy New Year to every member!
     For the time being, my first aim in chess (with few opportunities for practicing my openings in OTB-play): not to lose against any of the FM opponents I am going to encounter in team matches over the next months. 
     This, I think, speaks for b. I would just like to get some encouragement...


   Happy new year to you too!

   I think b sounds reasonable, but I would try to tailor a and b depending on what your opponents play. I.e. play the opponent! Quite the opposite of what you have done against the girl. Although I seem to recall Simon Webb's advice of complicating it against stronger opponents, I still think it makes sense to prepare both approaches.
  
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HoemberChess
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GMs playing both the London (W) and the French (B)
01/01/12 at 12:24:47
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Happy New Year to every member!

With practice I am slowly getting to know myself and my preferences in chess...so I already have two questions for the new year.

Q1) What strong players have the London System as White, while the French as Black in their repertoire?
     I am going to check out how they react to 1.d4/c4/Nf3...

Q2) Please help me choose. As Black, there are two set-ups I most like vs. 1.d4:
     
     a) Nimzo-Indian & Bogo-Indian (when I prefer flexible center -- no early ..d5 in order to make the play more complex) and the accelerated 1..e6 2.c4 Bb4+
     (In my case, this goes with 1.c4 e5 (2.Nc3 Nf6) w/ early ..Bb4 and 1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.Nc3/g3 b6; 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 b6. (I have a bigger aversion to 2.c4 e6 3.g3 and Catalan-style defence than I have to "a hedgehog in a hurry."))
     
     b) Slav w/ early ..a6
     When the fixed centre somehow makes me feel more secure. (an asset when playing much higher-rated opponents)

     (This means not so varied structures -- 1.c4 c6 2/3...d5, 1.Nf3 Nf6 2...d5 etc.)
     
     I can't decide how much emphasis I should give them (a and b) in my current opening-studies.
     For the time being, my first aim in chess (with few opportunities for practicing my openings in OTB-play): not to lose against any of the FM opponents I am going to encounter in team matches over the next months. 
     This, I think, speaks for b. I would just like to get some encouragement...
  

as
*W 1d4) Torre/Barry/Pirc/Philidor/ early _d5:early c4(QGD/Slav/QGD/etc)
*B) 1e4:e6 [+1_c5 2Nf3 a6]| 1d4:e6 2c4 Bb4+ BID/pseudoNID [+1_Nf6 NID]| 1c4:c5,_Nc6,_e5,_g6| 1Nf3:c5
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