Week 100: the London System vs Qb6, and a week under 1300 again

Week 100 of the diary, and not a week to celebrate. From December 22 to 28, 2025 I played 17 games: 6 wins, 10 losses and 1 draw, and my rating fell from 1328 to 1295 (−33). It was the first time I'd been under 1300 since November 19. The game that set the tone was a classic London System vs Qb6 position: Black's queen jumped to b6, I didn't take care of my b2 pawn, and two moves later the same queen was eating my rook in the corner.

The week in numbers

My accuracy was higher than in the two previous weeks (78.7 %), yet I lost more. The engine still found 45 blunders, 37 of them in the middlegame. The split by colour says a lot: with White, always my d4 and Bf4 setup, I scored 2 wins, 6 losses and 1 draw. With Black I went 4–4. My wins averaged 91.9 %; my losses 73.1 %.

The London System vs Qb6: game 1907

On Monday I had White against putasv (1351). After 1.d4 d5 2.Bf4 c6 3.Nf3 Bf5 4.e3 Black played 4...Qb6, the queen move every London player knows: it attacks b2. I answered 5.c4, the engine called it only an inaccuracy, and Black took the pawn, 5...Qxb2. The engine still had the game about equal (−0.31). Then I had to make one careful move.

r n . . k b n r
p p . . p p p p
. . p . . . . .
. . . p . b . .
. . P P . B . .
. . . . P N . .
P q . . . P P P
R N . Q K B . R

I took on d5, and the engine's first line is the one that happened: 6...Qxa1, the queen takes the rook in the corner (−5.00, "black is winning"). With 6.Nbd2 the knight leaves b1, so my queen on d1 and my rook on a1 see each other, and the position stays about equal (−0.39). Two other moves the engine looked at, 6.Bd3 and 6.g4, were already clearly worse for me. I lost a rook on move 6, fought on until move 43, and the game ended by abandonment (game).

The idea is simple once you see it. The engine's own description of 5...Qxb2 says it: the queen attacks my rook in the corner, which has no defender, and my knight on b1. So every move after that has to keep both of them covered. Before I make "my" move, I have to ask what her next capture is.

A bishop trade near my king: game 1909

On Christmas Eve I had Black against XDXDXDLOLXDLOL (1351), who played the same kind of d4 and Bf4 system against my g6 setup.

r . . q r . k .
p p p b . p b p
. . n p . n p .
. . . . . . . .
. . . P . N . .
. . P B . P B .
P P Q N . . P P
R . . . . R K .

13...Bh6 attacks the knight on f4 (with the knight on d2 behind it). It looks active, but the engine rated it a blunder (+0.05 → +1.87); with 13...Ne7 the game stays about equal (+0.11). In the game White answered 14.Rfe1, I took 14...Bxf4, and from then on my king had no dark-squared bishop next to it. Two moves later 16...Qh4 was another blunder (+1.28 → +3.63), 20.Nf6+ forked my king and rook (21.Nxe8 followed), and on move 36 White's queen mated me on g7 (game).

The other games

Five of my losses and the draw came from positions the engine had me winning, and they look alike: a long fight, a clear advantage, then one move that hands it back. Against Scooby_Dooo7 (1337) I was +5.73 when 31.Ra8 turned it into −7.98, with 91 seconds on my clock. Against richy1963 (1332) the game went 76 moves and I was mated with 5 seconds left. The bright spots were short: a 9-move win against YY6999 (1257) at 93.8 %, and two clean wins with Black on December 27, at 95.2 % and 94.3 %.

The lesson of the week

Pawn grabs by the enemy queen are only half the story; the danger is the next capture. In game 1907 the b2 pawn didn't lose the game — leaving a1 undefended did. My new rule for the London: when Black's queen reaches b6 or b2, I check every piece on her diagonals and files before I play anything else, and I prefer the developing move (Nbd2) that also protects.

All games this week

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