Opening Repertoire - The Jobava London System Paperback – July 18, 2022

This is simply the best introductory, opening repertoire, book on the Jobava London System.In contrast to the standard London System which features an early Nf3 and Bf4, the Jobava London typically features Nc3 on White's second move, with Bf4 soon to follow. The author does a very good job of explaining the various themes and plans, which are presented within the context of complete, annotated games (which I prefer).I own hundreds of chess books, including every important book on the standard London System. So, I feel confident and competent to make this recommendation. If you are interested in learning this opening, I consider this book to be a must.

Very good book of a variation of the London Opening for White. I think it would be better suited for Club or Intermediate players. Beginners might find the main lines of the Opening confusing unless they understand WHY moves are made. Is this heading toward a stronger position and how is it attempting to achieve that goal? Once you come out of Book moves unless you understand tactics and combination it can be somewhat confusing. All that said, Simon Williams is a Great Teacher. He is currently up for the 2022 Yuri Averbakh & Isaac Boleslavsky Book Award for Chess Books by the FIDE for his book Grandmaster Gambits: 1e4 which he cowrote with Richard Palliser 04/06/25. Have used the main lines and variations of this opening. Still feel opening is better for Club players. Out of 63 OTB games, used 19 times. Won 7 of 19, drew 5 of 19, and lost 7. So all in all a fair opening. Still used the French and kings Indian more.

The games of Jobava and Carlsen included in this book are fantastic.The problem is the analysis is poor and the idea variations explaining plans and objectives are either vague or non existent.There are many diagrams of most situations you might encounter however. Club players are advised to check the analysis with an engine before OTB play

Some chess books deliver the goods. Others do not. This book falls into the latter category.I have two specific complaints and one general complaint.The first specific complaint is that the book does not properly cover lines where black plays ..a6, ..b5 and ..c5 early on to take over the queenside. This approch by black is very hard to counter by white. I still do not have a counter for it. This queenside expansion by black makes a lot of sense as the main weakness of the Jobova is the white knight on C3. On this square, the knight is both awkward and ineffective on that square. First, it is a target. Second, that knight really has nowhere to go, especially after the b6 square is taken away. So this rapid queenside pawn expansion by black takes advantage of the white knight on c3, gaining time on it as a target, even if black does not place ..b4 but merely *threatens* do it.1. d4 Nf62. Nc3 d53. Bf4 a64. e3 b55. a3 e66. Nf3 c5Stockfish recommends white play h4 and g4 countering black's queenside expansion with a white kingside expansion. Stockfish rates the position as equal for both sides.Note if white plays poorly here (and I have done this), white gets rolled quickly, and this kindside expansion is far from obvious for a club player like myself.The second specific complaint is that like some other openings, the Jobova has an extremely common position. It is reached by:1. d4 Nf62. Nc3 d53. Bf4 Bf54. f3 e65. g4 Bg66. h4This position is extremely common. I have had many, many games - both won and lost - starting from this position. Inexplicably, our our author here just stops there. Huh? How can a book be written by the Jobova and not cover its most common position in detail?! Kind of shocking.Finally, I personally find that opening books just based on games often occur because they are both much easier and faster for authors to write. This does not mean all such chess opening books are bad. It just means that lazy authors favor such books.Our author here is, I think, quite lazy.Oh, I prefer black's simple queenside pawn expansion to other black plans; however, if you want to see some unexpected lightning, look at the Youtube video by FM Graif titled "CRUSH the Jobava London by falling into a trap ON PURPOSE!!" Now Stockfish has counters for this meta-trap, but boy are they hard to find over the board, and I doubt many will find them. Oh, I have won many games with this trap. Shocked that the trapper can become the trappee.

Only into 70 pages. As far as I got,I like it. Different then reg. London

One of the things the author points out is that there is little theory to learn while the book is 253 pages. So, it's not an easy to learn system with little to know theory. Now I will say that I used my chess computer facing another computer (3300 ELO). This opening gained an advantage very early in the game. In fact it only took my computer 17 moves to checkmate Black's King. So the opening is great. But it's going to take a lot of study.