Hi Checkspeak players,

yesterday I watched a game where Black got horribly dismantled against the Colle System. The Colle is a popular system among amateurs which has a reputation as boring (deserved, in my opinion), but still has some sting if Black gets careless, bored or simply tries to play a few dubiously creative moves. Everyone of us may have to face it at times, and so I want to give a few thoughts on how to spice up the highly unpleasant task of defending against this.

First of all I want to give a short characterisation of the Colle:

Usually White will play the moves 1.d4, 2.Nf3, 3.e3, followed by Bd3, 0-0, c3 and Nbd2 regardless of what Black plays. After that he will try to achieve e3-e4, often supported by moves like Re1 and/or Qe2. This has brought this system a reputation of being easy to play, especially as there isn't much theory to be memorized. Along with the fact that there is hardly any possibility to blunder the game away at an early stage as White, this should explain sufficiently why the Colle is so popular at lower levels.

The inventor of this setup, German player Edgar Colle, interpreted it as an all-out attacking weapon, trying to launch a direct kingside assault. Even today afficionados of his system play it pretty much in the same way, but actually there is still another more sophisticated detail to be observed: After Black's typical central counterplay with c7-c5 and c5xd4 Nxd4 and Whites eventual e4 and d5xe4, it is White who has obtained a queenside majority, which can constitute an advantage in many cases:

In the middlegame, because the pawns can be advanced to create a passed pawn without exposing white's king and again in the endgame because the created passed pawn is a distant one. Blockading it will draw defenders away from the kingside, where white attackers may now find a way to infiltrate.

All this sounds pretty impressive, but of course the second player has sufficient resources to prevent these attempts on his life as long as he plays carefully. Going for the full point still remains a straining task, though.

On the whole it is my impression that although difficult to defend against, the Colle lacks a variety of possible plans, and therefore ultimately it can't be called very ambitious. You really should have a broader understanding of positional planning than just to always prepare e3-e4!

So here is the ANCL game I watched:

After the game, Brambilla was very much dissatisfied with her play - quite understandably so, who likes to lose in this fashion? The main thing to observe though, is that she ended up in a completely losing position by playing a few dubious moves, while White didn't have to do anything atypical or creative, but just play the normal system moves. This is exactly what we should avoid when facing the Colle.

So how can we do better then?

Firstly, as I see it we have two different basic defences, depending on our first move answer to 1.d4: The Indian approach and the Queen's Gambit approach. The latter is what may be called the main line Colle: 1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 e6 3.e3 Nf6 4.Bd3 c5 5.c3 Be7 6.Nbd2 0-0 7.0-0

Playing this line as Black is a real grind, but you don't have much choice having played 1...d5. If you end up here, I suggest you continue with something like b6 and Bb7, because if White sticks to his e3-e4 plan (which he does in most cases), the light-squared bishops will come off in the exchange series on e4, after which White doesn't have anything. You may have to face a plan including Ne5 and f4 instead, though, which is more challenging. Nc6, Nfd7 with a plan of f6 and e5 maybe an appropriate answer then, but make sure you won't be steamrollered on the kingside before you can get active!

So obviously you can count yourself much luckier if you play Indian defences, as after 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 there is no obligation to play d5 now or in the near future. Generally you can enter much more asymmetrical positions, in which original play will be required from both sides. Especially a kingside fianchetto seems to be a good idea, as any aggression by White tends to be fairly harmless against the bolstered black fortress. Still, don't castle too early as otherwise the rock solid centre may allow White to entertain some flank ideas based on h2-h4-h5. Often it is a good idea to develop the queenside before castling and maybe swap off the light-squared bishops again by b6 and Ba6, which would again hamper any kingside attack White may want to drum up. My own preferred line goes something like 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 c5 (Another good idea is to forego any central action in favour of the immediate 2...g6) 3.c3 g6 (3...b6 is playable, too. Instead, White can take the c-pawn in the main line, when Black doesn't have a quick way to recover the pawn, but chances are that he recieves positional compensation quite similar to Réti lines arising by 1.Nf3 d5 2.c4 c6 3.g3 dxc4 and so on. Lucky me that I have those in my repertoire as well) 4.e3 Bg7 5.Bd3 b6

It is hardly the only way to treat the position, possibly you can go for typical King's Indian motives as well, employing 2...g6, 3...Bg7 in conjunction with d6 and Nbd7, aiming for e7-e5. Again, don't castle too early!

To round off this little Anti-Colle lecture, I will proceed to show a game I played in an otb tournament last year, in which I had the first opportunity to test my new setup under serious conditions:

I hope this will be of some help to you in future games against the Colle. If you want to comment or post your own recipes against the Colle, please do so!

Kind Regards,

Torben

Checkspeak

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