How to Beat the London System
The London System (1.d4 d5 2.Bf4) has a reputation as a low-theory, hard-to-punish opening for White, and the data mostly backs that up: across the games this site tracked, White scores 53.3% at 1600-1800 from 22,298,714 games. That doesn’t mean every reply for Black is equally good.
What the data shows
Looking at the most common replies to 2.Bf4 in this position, the highest-scoring options for Black — ranked by actual result, not by popularity — are:
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| Move | Games | Played | Score for Black |
|---|---|---|---|
| c5 | 1,245,294 | 5.6% | 49.2% |
| c6 | 1,195,411 | 5.4% | 47.6% |
| Bf5 | 3,479,234 | 15.6% | 47.4% |
For comparison, the single most commonly played reply here is Nf6 (6,011,010 games) — popular is not automatically the same as best-scoring, which is exactly why this table is sorted by score rather than by frequency.
A mistake the data flags
Independent of any specific “trap,” the numbers on this exact position highlight moves that are common but underperform:
- Nc6 is played in 21.1% of games in this exact position, but scores only 44.7% for Black at 1600-1800 — White’s most common answer, e3, scores 55.4% for White.
- e6 is played in 19.3% of games in this exact position, but scores only 46.6% for Black at 1600-1800.
See the full page
For the complete rating-band breakdown, model games, and recent club games in this line, see the London System opening page →.