HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Dutch Defence is a
chess opening A chess opening or simply an opening is the initial stage of a chess game. It usually consists of established theory; the other phases are the middlegame and the endgame. Many opening sequences have standard names such as the "Sicilian Defens ...
characterised by the moves: :1. d4 f5 Black's 1...f5 stakes a claim to the e4-square and envisions an attack in the
middlegame ''Middlegame'' is a 2019 science fantasy/ horror novel by Seanan McGuire. It was well-received critically, winning the 2020 Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel and garnering a nomination for the 2020 Hugo Award for Best Novel. A companion novel ...
on White's ; however, it also weakens Black's kingside to an extent (especially the e8–h5 diagonal). Like its 1.e4 counterpart, the
Sicilian Defence The Sicilian Defence is a chess opening that begins with the following moves: :1. b:Chess Opening Theory/1. e4, e4 b:Chess Opening Theory/1. e4/1...c5, c5 The Sicilian is the most popular and best-scoring response to White's first move 1.e4. Ope ...
, the Dutch is an aggressive and unbalancing opening, resulting in the lowest percentage of draws among the most common replies to 1.d4. Historically, White has tried many methods to exploit the kingside weaknesses, such as the Staunton Gambit (2.e4) and Korchnoi Attack (2.h3 and 3.g4). The Dutch has never been a main line against 1.d4 and is rarely seen today in high-level competition, although a number of top players, including Alexander Alekhine, Bent Larsen, Paul Morphy, Miguel Najdorf, and Hikaru Nakamura have used it with success. Its most notable use may have been in 1951, when both world champion
Mikhail Botvinnik Mikhail Moiseyevich Botvinnik, ( – May 5, 1995) was a Soviet and Russian chess grandmaster. The sixth World Chess Champion, he also worked as an electrical engineer and computer scientist and was a pioneer in computer chess. Botvinnik ...
and his challenger, David Bronstein, played it in their 1951 World Championship match.


History

Elias Stein (1748–1812), an Alsatian who settled in The Hague, recommended the defence as the best reply to 1.d4 in his 1789 book ''Nouvel essai sur le Jeu des échecs, avec des réflexions militaires relatives à ce jeu''. Siegbert Tarrasch rejected the opening as unsound in his 1931 work ''
The Game of Chess ''The Game of Chess'' is a book about chess written by Siegbert Tarrasch. It was published in 1987 by Courier Dover Publications, originally it was released in German as ''Das Schachspiel'' in 1931. In the foreword Tarrasch wrote: "Chess, like mus ...
'', arguing that White should reply with the Staunton Gambit, with White being better after 2.e4 fxe4 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 c6 5.f3 exf3.


Theory

White most often fianchettoes their king's bishop with g3 and Bg2. Black also sometimes fianchettoes their king's bishop with ...g6 and ...Bg7 (the Leningrad Dutch), but may instead develop their bishop to e7, d6 (after ...d5), or b4 (the latter is most often seen if White plays c4 before castling). Play often runs 2.g3 Nf6 3.Bg2 e6 4.Nf3 (4.Nh3 is also possible, intending Nf4–d3 to control the e5-square Black plays the Stonewall Variation) 4...Be7 5.0-0 0-0 6.c4 and now Black chooses between 6...d5 (the characteristic move of the Stonewall), 6...d6, the Ilyin-Zhenevsky Variation (less popular today), or Alekhine's move 6...Ne4!? retaining the option of moving the d-pawn either one or two squares. The opening's attacking potential is shown in the Polish Immortal, in which Miguel Najdorf, using the Stonewall Variation, sacrificed all of his to win by
checkmate Checkmate (often shortened to mate) is any game position in chess and other chess-like games in which a player's king is in check (threatened with ) and there is no possible escape. Checkmating the opponent wins the game. In chess, the king is ...
.


Practitioners

The Stonewall Dutch enjoyed a resurgence of interest in the 1980s and 1990s, when leading grandmasters Artur Yusupov, Sergey Dolmatov, Nigel Short and Simen Agdestein helped develop the system where Black plays an earlier ...d5 and places his dark-squared bishop on d6. Termed the Modern Stonewall, this setup has remained more popular than the traditional early ...Be7.
Magnus Carlsen Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen (born 30 November 1990) is a Norwegian chess grandmaster who is the reigning five-time World Chess Champion. He is also a three-time World Rapid Chess Champion and five-time World Blitz Chess Champion. Carlsen has ...
has used the Stonewall to score wins against
Viswanathan Anand Viswanathan "Vishy" Anand (born 11 December 1969) is an Indian chess grandmaster and a former five-time World Chess Champion. He became the first grandmaster from India in 1988, and is one of the few players to have surpassed an Elo rating ...
and
Fabiano Caruana Fabiano Luigi Caruana (born July 30, 1992) is an American chess grandmaster. A chess prodigy, Caruana became a grandmaster at the age of 14 years, 11 months, and 20 days—the youngest grandmaster in the history of both Italy and the United St ...
. Simon Williams is one of the leading practitioners of the classical Dutch and wrote more than one book on the opening.


White continuations

The traditional move order involves White playing 2.c4. More commonly, White will start with 2.g3. Some common variations are: c4 is played after g3 and Bg2; c4 is played after Nf3; and c4 is played after 0-0. Examples: * traditional: 2.c4 Nf6 3.g3 g6 4.Bg2 Bg7 5.Nf3 0-0 6.0-0 d6 * common: 2.g3 Nf6 3.Bg2 g6 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.0-0 0-0 6.c4 d6 (see diagram)


Other second moves

White has various more aggressive alternatives to the standard moves, including * 2.Nc3 Nf6 (or 2...d5) 3.Bg5 (Raphael Variation); * 2.Bg5, the Hopton Attack; e.g. 2...Nf6 (2...g6 is the most popular move) 3. Bxf6 exf6 4. e3 or e4 * 2.Bf4 or 2.Nf3 and 3.Bf4, the London System * 2.g4, Krejcik Gambit * 2.e4!?, the Staunton Gambit, named after Howard Staunton, who introduced it in his match against
Bernhard Horwitz Bernhard Horwitz (1807 in Neustrelitz – 1885 in London) was a German and British chess master, chess writer and chess composer. Horwitz was born in Neustrelitz and went to school in Berlin, where he studied art. From 1837 to 1843, he was par ...
. The Staunton Gambit was once a feared attacking line, but it has been out of favour for over 80 years. Grandmaster Larry Christiansen and
International Master FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (chess), Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combinatio ...
Jeremy Silman Jeremy Silman (born August 28, 1954) is an American International Master (IM) of chess and writer. Silman was born in Del Rio, Texas. He began playing chess at the age of 12. He has won the American Open, the National Open, and the U.S. Open, and ...
have opined that it "offers White equality at best." * Carl Mayet introduced a completely different gambit approach to the Dutch in 1839 against von der Lasa, playing 2.h3 followed by 3.g4. Von der Lasa later published analysis of this line in the first edition of the '' Handbuch des Schachspiels''.
Viktor Korchnoi Viktor Lvovich Korchnoi ( rus, Ви́ктор Льво́вич Корчно́й, p=vʲiktər lʲvovʲɪtɕ kɐrtɕˈnoj; 23 March 1931 – 6 June 2016) was a Soviet (before 1976) and Swiss (after 1980) chess grandmaster (GM) and chess writer. H ...
, one of the world's leading players, reintroduced the line into tournament practice in Korchnoi–Känel,
Biel Biel/Bienne (official bilingual wording; , ) is a town and a municipality in the Biel/Bienne administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. Biel/Bienne lies on the language boundary between the French-speaking and German-spea ...
1979. GM Christiansen later concluded, as von der Lasa and Staunton had done over 140 years earlier, that Black could get a good game by declining the gambit with 2...Nf6 3.g4 d5! * 2.e3, Alapin Variation Black sometimes starts with the move-order 1...e6 to avoid these lines, although Black must then be ready to play the
French Defence The French Defence is a chess opening characterised by the moves: :1. e4 e6 This is most commonly followed by 2.d4 d5, with Black intending ...c5 soon after, attacking White's and gaining on the . The French has a reputation for solidity ...
if White continues 2.e4, rendering the Dutch no longer an option. The Staunton gambit remains a good choice of opening for white in blitz tournaments where black has little time to ponder the most accurate defense.


''ECO''

The ''
Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings The ''Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings'' () is a reference work describing the state of Chess theory#Opening theory, opening theory in chess, originally published in five volumes from 1974 to 1979 by the Serbian company Šahovski Informator (Che ...
'' () has twenty codes for the Dutch Defence, A80 through A99. *A80: 1.d4 f5 *A81: 1.d4 f5 2.g3 (Fianchetto Attack) *A82: 1.d4 f5 2.e4 ( Staunton Gambit) *A83: 1.d4 f5 2.e4 fxe4 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 (Staunton Gambit) *A84: 1.d4 f5 2.c4 *A85: 1.d4 f5 2.c4 Nf6 3.Nc3 (Rubinstein Variation) *A86: 1.d4 f5 2.c4 Nf6 3.g3 (Fianchetto Variation) *A87: 1.d4 f5 2.c4 Nf6 3.g3 g6 4.Bg2 Bg7 5.Nf3 (Leningrad Dutch) *A88: 1.d4 f5 2.c4 Nf6 3.g3 g6 4.Bg2 Bg7 5.Nf3 0-0 6.0-0 d6 7.Nc3 c6 (Leningrad Dutch, Warsaw Variation) *A89: 1.d4 f5 2.c4 Nf6 3.g3 g6 4.Bg2 Bg7 5.Nf3 0-0 6.0-0 d6 7.Nc3 Nc6 (Leningrad Dutch, Matulovich) *A90: 1.d4 f5 2.c4 Nf6 3.g3 e6 4.Bg2 (Classical Variation) *A91: 1.d4 f5 2.c4 Nf6 3.g3 e6 4.Bg2 Be7 *A92: 1.d4 f5 2.c4 Nf6 3.g3 e6 4.Bg2 Be7 5.Nf3 0-0 *A93: 1.d4 f5 2.c4 Nf6 3.g3 e6 4.Bg2 Be7 5.Nf3 0-0 6.0-0 d5 7.b3 (Botvinnik Variation) *A94: 1.d4 f5 2.c4 Nf6 3.g3 e6 4.Bg2 Be7 5.Nf3 0-0 6.0-0 d5 7.b3 c6 8.Ba3 (Stonewall) *A95: 1.d4 f5 2.c4 Nf6 3.g3 e6 4.Bg2 Be7 5.Nf3 0-0 6.0-0 d5 7.Nc3 c6 (Stonewall) *A96: 1.d4 f5 2.c4 Nf6 3.g3 e6 4.Bg2 Be7 5.Nf3 0-0 6.0-0 d6 *A97: 1.d4 f5 2.c4 Nf6 3.g3 e6 4.Bg2 Be7 5.Nf3 0-0 6.0-0 d6 7.Nc3 Qe8 (Ilyin–Genevsky Variation) *A98: 1.d4 f5 2.c4 Nf6 3.g3 e6 4.Bg2 Be7 5.Nf3 0-0 6.0-0 d6 7.Nc3 Qe8 8.Qc2 (Ilyin–Genevsky Variation) *A99: 1.d4 f5 2.c4 Nf6 3.g3 e6 4.Bg2 Be7 5.Nf3 0-0 6.0-0 d6 7.Nc3 Qe8 8.b3 (Ilyin–Genevsky Variation)


See also

*
Bird's Opening Bird's Opening (or the Dutch Attack) is a chess opening characterised by the move: :1. f4 Bird's is a standard flank opening. White's strategic ideas involve control of the e5-square, offering good attacking chances at the expense of slightly ...
*
List of chess openings This is a list of chess openings, organized by the '' Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings'' () code. In 1966, Chess Informant categorized the chess openings into five broad areas ("A" through "E"), with each of those broken down into one hundred subc ...
* List of chess openings named after places


References


Further reading

* * * * * * *


External links


Learning the Dutch DefenseNouvel essai sur le jeu des échecs 1789 (Internet Archive)
{{chess, state=collapsed Chess openings 18th century in chess