If you’ve watched a single GothamChess opening video, you already know the philosophy behind Levy Rozman’s repertoire: pick openings that are easy to learn, hard to blunder, and useful in a thousand games. Levy is an International Master and a chess coach, and his opening choices are chosen through a teacher’s eyes — not to dazzle experts, but to get real improvers into good positions they actually understand. Here’s what he plays and teaches, and where to learn each one properly.
The philosophy: systems over theory
Elite grandmasters memorize enormous, ever-changing books of sharp theory. Levy’s whole message to the rest of us is the opposite: you don’t need that. You need a repeatable system you can play against almost anything, so you can spend your energy on the middlegame and endgame instead of cramming move orders. That’s why his flagship recommendations are setup-based openings — you aim for the same structure again and again and get better at it every time.
With White: the London System
Levy’s calling card with the white pieces is the London System. The idea is beautifully simple: play d4, develop your dark-squared bishop outside the pawn chain to Bf4, back it up with e3, Bd3, c3, Nbd2, and you’ve got a rock-solid, flexible setup you can use against nearly every Black reply.
Why does Levy love it for his audience? Because it delivers three things beginners desperately need: a safe king, a clear plan, and very few ways to get instantly crushed in the opening. You won’t out-prepare a grandmaster with the London, but you will reach a healthy middlegame every single game — and that’s the whole point. Learn the plans in our London System guide.
With Black: the Caro-Kann Defense
Against 1.e4, Levy is a champion of the Caro-Kann Defense (1.e4 c6, planning 2…d5). It’s the defensive equivalent of the London: solid, forgiving, and structurally sound. Black builds a sturdy pawn chain, develops the light-squared bishop actively before locking it in, and aims for a game with no glaring weaknesses.
The Caro-Kann suits Levy’s teaching style perfectly because it survives aggression. So much of the pain beginners feel with Black comes from getting attacked before they’ve developed — and the Caro-Kann is built precisely to blunt that. It trades a little bit of dynamism for a lot of reliability, which is exactly the trade a developing player should make. Levy has an entire “Learn the Caro-Kann” style of content, and you can study the mainlines in our Caro-Kann guide.
With Black vs. 1.e4 e5: the Italian Game
Levy has also taught the Italian Game — 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 — to countless first-timers, from both sides of the board. This isn’t a system he “mains” so much as the opening he uses to teach the principles of good opening play in their purest form: control the center with a pawn, develop your knights and bishops toward the center, target the vulnerable f7 square, and castle early. If the London teaches patience and the Caro-Kann teaches solidity, the Italian teaches the classical fundamentals every player should meet first.
The bigger repertoire
Because Levy makes so much instructional content, he has explained a huge range of openings on camera — the French Defense, the Scandinavian, the English Opening, and more — often in bite-sized “10-minute” video form. But when it comes to what he actually recommends and relies on, the pattern is consistent: structure, safety, and repeatability. He’d rather you play one system brilliantly than ten systems badly.
Why beginners should copy this approach
There’s a common trap new players fall into: they watch a video about a spectacular gambit or a 20-move computer line and think that’s how you’re supposed to build an opening. Levy’s entire teaching philosophy pushes back on that. The openings he actually recommends — the London, the Caro-Kann, the Italian — share a quiet superpower: they let you survive the opening without memorizing much, so you can spend your limited study time on the parts of the game that decide most amateur matches, namely tactics and not blundering.
That’s also why his repertoire is so transferable. Once you can play a London structure, you understand a whole family of related setups; once you’re comfortable in the Caro-Kann, you’ve learned how to build and defend a sound pawn chain against 1.e4. These aren’t one-trick openings — they’re foundations you keep building on as you improve. A beginner who adopts Levy’s repertoire isn’t just learning three openings; they’re learning how to think about openings.
How to build a repertoire like Levy’s
- Choose one White system and one Black defense. The London plus the Caro-Kann is a complete, low-maintenance starter pack.
- Learn plans, not just moves. Understand why the London bishop goes to f4 and what you’re aiming for in the middlegame.
- Play the same thing repeatedly. Repetition is how a “system” opening pays off — every game teaches you the resulting structures a little better.
- Only branch out later. Once your fundamentals are solid, sharper openings become an option — not a requirement.
A word of honesty
Levy’s repertoire is optimized for teaching and practical results, not for fighting for an edge at the 2700 level. Top grandmasters would tell you the London and Caro-Kann are “solid but unambitious” at the very highest level — and they’re right. But for the players Levy actually serves — the millions climbing from beginner to intermediate — these openings are close to ideal. Match the tool to the job.
Keep exploring
Study the guides: London System · Caro-Kann Defense · Italian Game. Then see how his openings shape his playing style and his best games. Back to the main profile · browse all chess players.
Written and fact-checked by the Chess Lab Academy Editorial Team · Facts verified against Wikipedia, his FIDE profile, and Chess.com, as of July 2026 · Last verified 2026-07-10 · How we verify content.