Dutch Defense

[Derek Sinclair]

Anyone play this on a regular basis or is a fan of it?

any good hints or tips when using it?

thanks
D

[MJMcCready]

You could purchase GM S. Williams publications on it. They have quite a few useful tips and show a good understanding of that defense.

[Derek Sinclair]

You could purchase GM S. Williams publications on it. They have quite a few useful tips and show a good understanding of that defense.

Thanks

There is also a lot of online stuff about it now but was just looking for any discussion on the forum. Quite liking openings off the beaten track at the moment.

[MJMcCready]

Well, having played it for about a decade or so I'd say its a great opening to play but you do have to study it more closely than more mainstream openings because the move f5 isn't a developing move and does weaken your king, and after playing it for a while you will see how much that can come back to haunt you. And like GM Williams says, there are certain moves and motives that must be put into place or you will simply end up worse, such as e4 being countered by e5. It's quite easy to be squashed positionally with the Dutch if you are not too careful. You might want to look at some of Botvinnik's games, he handled it really well and understood it at great depth. Nakamura used to play it when he was young and also understood it very well. The Lenningrad Dutch is highly effective provided your opponent doesn't know what to do against it, hence the reason you never see it at the highest levels anymore. As long as your opponents are under 180, the Dutch is okay I think but if they are above that, you really do need to invest a lot of time in it as white nearly always has a much better game if he breaks the centre open, and you really need to know how to counter that or you just end up worse in my experience.

[Joey Stewart]

I don't play the Dutch exclusively but if you meet whites 1. d4 or c4 with e6 it gives the option to transpose into a stonewall Dutch if you fancy your chances - I quite like that system, it is one where white needs really good knowledge of the position to gain an advantage and without it black can be equal or better fairly early on

[MJMcCready]

All white has to do is bust open the centre with f3 and e4. The Stonewall Dutch is best avoided, it's too inflexible, which is a problem the Dutch has generally but if you do open with 1.e6 it does mean you will avoid the Staunton Gambit if you don't like that, and it's rare that someone will play 2. e4 and transpose into a French. 1. d4 players don't normally do that.

[Joey Stewart]

You would be surprised at how often I have had transpositions into frenches from d4 systems, it's especially nice to inflict on blackmar diemer players

[Derek Sinclair]

i often played 1...e6 to either e4 or d4 and yes.. white often plays the other move giving me the french defence.

[MJMcCready]

1 d4. players don't usually switch to 1.e4 openings at club level in my experience. Not normally anyway.

[John Upham]

The Classical Dutch is reckoned to be the most enterprising of the three Dutch flavours and certainly a "playing to win" choice.

The CD makes for a good choice for someone who also is familiar with the Black side of the French Defence.

[Phil Neatherway]

I used to dabble with the Leningrad Dutch, but a well-known English GM told me it is 'anti-positional crap', which put me off somewhat!

[MJMcCready]

I used to dabble with the Leningrad Dutch, but a well-known English GM told me it is 'anti-positional crap', which put me off somewhat!

That's nothing compared to what I've heard GM Peter Svidler say about it more than once. Based on that, I would only use it if my opponent was more than 1000 ELO points below me.

[Jonathan Rogers]

And yet Svidler once played the Leningrad Dutch in the candidates' and got a good position (albeit he eventually lost)

[Jonathan Rogers]

I used to dabble with the Leningrad Dutch, but a well-known English GM told me it is 'anti-positional crap', which put me off somewhat!

Why do players who do not pretend to play at strong GM level, i.e. most of us, worry about such things?

[LawrenceCooper]

I used to dabble with the Leningrad Dutch, but a well-known English GM told me it is 'anti-positional crap', which put me off somewhat!

Why do players who do not pretend to play at strong GM level, i.e. most of us, worry about such things?

I'm glad that you've never had such worries with your choice of openings