How to play the Jobava London

The Jobava London is a fun, rare, aggressive opening that works great at the beginner and intermediate levels. This post will teach you the basics of the Jobava, while highlighting some of the early traps black can fall in to.

The Jobava London typically starts with the following moves: 1. d4 d5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. Bf4

If you are an e4 player trying this opening, the above move order is best for you. This is because the Jobava can be declined when the opponent decides not to push d5. This will often transpose into the Pirc or French, which as an e4 player you should have a decent grasp of already.

If you are a London System player, then it would be best for you to play Bf4 on move 2. This way you will have familiar positions if the opponent does not play Nf6.

Forward Knight Jump

Generally in the Jobava London setup, if you can jump your knight forward to the b5 square, this is a good move. For example a common mistake at the beginner level is 3. Nc6 from black. In this position we jump our knight forward, and black has no good way to defend the c7 square, which forks the king and rook. If black finds it, the best move is to sacrifice the pawn on e5, leading to a great position for white.

The knight jumping forward is also great when our opponent plays 3. e6. In this variation, black either blocks with a bishop on d6, and we collect the bishop pair, or they move their knight to a6, which is now awkwardly placed on the rim.

Early f3

Your opponent will never see this move coming! When they bring their bishop out early to g4 or f5, responding with f3 leads to an early Kingside attack. Following this move up with g4 and h4, your opponent is immediately on the back foot. If they aren't careful, and play a move like e6, h5 traps the bishop!

Generally in this position, you want to trade the light squared bishop, castle queen side, and go for checkmate early.

General Setup

If your opponent avoids all the early traps in the jobava. You can expect to see a position like follows.

You can see that the knight generally belongs on e5 and the bishop belongs on d3. You can bring your queen to the f3 square, and set up early checkmate threats from there. Additionally you can queenside castle, and start an early pawn storm on the kingside.

Conclussion

That covers all the general tips you need to start playing the Jobava London. If you're looking for more detail, you can see my youtube video covering the topic here