Find on Amazon
Visit New In Chess

The Modernized London System

Milos Pavlovic

Difficulty: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced

Category: Opening

Readability: 3/10

?
How difficult it is to read the book without using a board. A book with 10/10 readability is a bedtime story, a book with 1/10 is a puzzle book full of variations. Readability doesn’t represent the quality of the book.

Usefulness: 5/10

?
Usefulness is a measure of how useful the book is for chess improvement within the topic it covers. Books with a high usefulness score should help you improve quicker than those with a low score.
Pavlović doesn’t waste time on lengthy introductions. From page one, The Modernized London System explains theory in 8 chapters, each devoted to a setup, system, or move order black can play against the London System. The Modernized London System covers an entire repertoire for white in the London System, and it alone should suffice to always be better or equal out of the opening. Having played and explored the London myself, I can say that I learned many ideas from Pavlović, and would apply them in my own games if I still played it over the board today.
  • 2024
  • Thinkers Publishing
  • Milos Pavlovic
  • Pages: 248
  • Physical

I stopped playing the London System on January 1st 2024. It was my New Year’s resolution. Despite enjoying the positions I got most of the time, and despite scoring quite well, it became clear that I’m stuck in a loop of playing the same positions over and over again. Furthermore, there are several setups black can play against the London that extinguish any chance for an advantage or even an interesting game.

Having given you my personal disclaimer, I must say that despite my reasoning for playing the main lines instead of the London, the opening is perfectly sound, playable on any level, and employed by amateurs and Super Grandmasters alike.

The theory and the ideas in the London have developed rapidly in recent years, stripping the system of its status as “an opening you can play without learning theory”. The Modernized London System by Miloš Pavlović is one of several volumes devoted to the London published in the last several years. Pavlović doesn’t waste time on lengthy introductions. From page one, The Modernized London System explains theory in 8 chapters, each devoted to a setup, system, or move order black can play against the London System.

I’m not a big fan of opening books that focus on theory. I prefer those that explain ideas, strategy, patterns, ensuing endgames, tactics and attacking patterns. In short, instead of going over theoretical lines, which I can do on my own on lichess, I wanna hear the author explain the ideas behind an opening. Pavlović does that to some extent while explaining the moves, but doesn’t devote chapters or sections to what I look for in an opening book. That doesn’t mean that the book is not valuable or useful, it is, it just makes it harder to read and enjoy.

The Modernized London System covers an entire repertoire for white in the London System, and it alone should suffice to always be better or equal out of the opening. Having played and explored the London myself, I can say that I learned many ideas from Pavlović, and would apply them in my own games if I still played it over the board today.

If you play the London System seriously and regularly over the board, The Modernized London System will be very useful for you. For beginner players, I would recommend finding a different resource that explains ideas rather than theory.