Queen's Pawn Game:London System

The London System against ...d5: White’s bishop comes to f4 before e3, followed by c3, Bd3 and Nbd2 — a setup that is easy to learn and hard to crack.

It is reached after 5 moves: 1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Bf4. It is a line of the Queen's Pawn Game.

Black is to move and has 29 legal moves. Over the next four moves — two for each side — the game can branch into 955,629 different games. Those games reach 310,273 different positions: most positions can be reached in more than one way, 3.1 on average.

The Lichess opening list names 4 further lines after this position.

The same moves can be played in 6 different legal orders that all reach this position. For example 1. Nf3 d5 2. d4 Nf6 3. Bf4, which starts as the Zukertort Opening.