Dreev's London (2)

Part 1 gave White a reliable structure against Black's classical setups. Part 2 answers a different question: what happens when the opponent has done the homework? GMs Alexey Dreev and Pier Luigi Basso built this course around Black's sharpest, most computer-tested tries against 3.Bf4 — the exact positions a well-prepared opponent will steer toward today. The repertoire doesn't just patch holes; it turns the London into what Dreev calls "a complete, future-proof weapon."

For decades the London System has carried a reputation for being quiet, safe, and a touch boring — a system you reach for when you want a calm game rather than a fight. GM Alexey Dreev opens this course by dismantling that idea from forty years of personal experience. The London, he argues, is far more unpleasant to face than its tame image suggests. Black has many setups that equalize on paper, yet in nearly all of them he is left untangling small, irritating practical problems move after move. That gap between reputation and reality is the thread running through Part 1, and the goal is stated plainly: by the end, you are the one posing the problems.