The Colle, 150, Barry, and London Systems. Thoughts.

[Hagen]

If there are some opening systems that don't usually get alot of press it's gotta be the ones I mentioned in the header. The London System plus the others listed like the Colle, the 150, and the Barry Attack.

I'm starting to appreciate the luxury of having these opening systems at my disposal if only because I'm a "normal" person who needs to spend time outside of chess. This means if I like the game but don't have the time to study oodles of opening theory on the latest "tricks" in the Najdorf, King's Indian, etc then I need an alternative to having to prepare for something like this.

These usually don't get alot of attention if only because they're not "fun"...meaning they're too simple to remember and don't require memorization. One bad side effect I hear from people who complain about these systems is that they don't give you an "advantage" out of the opening...as opposed to playing some obscure line in the Ruy Lopez, the Scotch or the Evans.

For me I don't care about trying to outplay my opponent in the opening. If I understand the positions well enough the opportunities will present themselves gradually over the course of the games being played. But I'd like to hear opinions about these systems and whether or not you've used the London System, the Colle, etc to good effect or whether it's better to mix up your game using main lines from the more familiar opening systems.

[Kurt]

I very much like the Colle system. It's quite safe and even much stronger players than me have great difficulties to get some advantage.
Kurt