Réti Opening: Anglo-Slav Variation, London Defensive System (4… Bf5 5. Bb2)
1. c4 Nf6 2. g3 c6 3. Nf3 d5 4. b3 Bf5 5. Bb2
The Réti Opening: Anglo-Slav Variation, London Defensive System is a chess opening classified as ECO A12, reached after 1. c4 Nf6 2. g3 c6 3. Nf3 d5 4. b3 Bf5 5. Bb2. It is a line of the Réti Opening. Black is to move.
In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 2 times by this move order. White won 100%, 0% were drawn and Black won 0%. The most popular continuation is 5… Nbd7 (50% of games).
Engine evaluation: −0.06 (Stockfish, depth 44; best line 5… e6 6. Bg2 Be7 7. O-O h6 8. Nc3)
- ECO
- A12
- Moves
- 9 plies
- FEN
rn1qkb1r/pp2pppp/2p2n2/3p1b2/2P5/1P3NP1/PB1PPP1P/RN1QKB1R b KQkq - 2 5- PGN
1. c4 Nf6 2. g3 c6 3. Nf3 d5 4. b3 Bf5 5. Bb2
Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess
Results by rating
| Average rating | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 2000+ | 2 | |
| All | 2 |
Most played moves
| Move | Games | White / draw / Black |
|---|---|---|
| 5… Nbd7 | 1 (50%) | |
| 5… Qb6 | 1 (50%) |
Master games
15 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 33%, draw 40%, Black 27%). The strongest:
- GM Hrant Melkumyan (2640) – IM M. Amin Tabatabaei (2481) 1-0 · Najdorf Mem Open A 2016 · 2016-07-13
- FM Levente Papp (2362) – GM Andrei Volokitin (2667) 0-1 · ch-HUN Rapid 2024 · 2024-07-20
- GM Vugar Asadli (2578) – IM Yuri Korsunsky (2395) 1-0 · 36th ECC Open 2021 · 2021-09-19
- IM Jan Emmanuel Garcia (2394) – IM Kore Akshayraj (2459) 1/2-1/2 · ch-Commonwealth 2012 · 2012-11-28
- IM Muhammad Khusenkhojaev (2466) – IM Denis Makhnev (2362) 1/2-1/2 · Almaty Open 2017 · 2017-10-11
Highest-rated Lichess games
- soyneno2000 (2286) – Eyes-0pen (2260) 1-0 · 2026-09-06 · 300 + 0s
- BeefyTurtle2 (2314) – rudi_sembiring (2196) 1-0 · 2026-09-03 · 180 + 0s
Comes from
Réti Opening: Anglo-Slav Variation, London Defensive System (4. b3 Bf5) 1. c4 Nf6 2. g3 c6 3. Nf3 d5 4. b3 Bf5
More Réti Opening lines (all)
- Réti Opening A09
- Réti Opening: Advance Variation A09
- Réti Opening: Advance Variation, Michel Gambit A09
- Réti Opening: Advance Variation, Navara Gambit A09
- Réti Opening: Penguin Variation A09
- Réti Opening: Reversed Blumenfeld Gambit A09
- Réti Opening: Réti Accepted A09
- Réti Opening: Réti Gambit, Keres Variation A09
- Réti Opening: Zilbermints Gambit A09
- Réti Opening: Anglo-Slav Variation, Gurevich System (2… d5 3. e3) A11
- Réti Opening: Anglo-Slav Variation, Gurevich System (3… Nf6 4. Qc2) A11
- Réti Opening: Anglo-Slav Variation, Gurevich System (4… Nbd7 5. Qc2) A11
Opening names and moves from the Lichess openings dataset; statistics from the Lichess open database, 2026-09 (CC0), sample of 12.6 million games, bots excluded; evaluations from Lichess cloud analysis (all CC0). Master games from The Week in Chess #920–#1664 by Mark Crowther, used with permission.