For patzers here to claim what is the best answer to 1.f4 is ridiculous.  It is known that Black has excellent choices to 1.f4.  1....d5, 1... c5,  1...  e5 at least are as good as anything else.   

Personally I have a taste for 1... c5 and 1... d5.  With 1... c5 Black can hope for play to transpose in some cases to a Grand Prix version of the Sicilian.  In other cases, he will be able to play a botvinnik set up ( english) with colors reversed, another solid choice.

If white has the desire to play the leningrad dutch or a stonewall set-up, after 1... d5, I seriously doubt he is asking for an advantage here.

Here is one sample--

1. f4 d5 
2. Nf3 g6 
3. g3 

[3. e3 Bg7 
4. d4 Nf6 
5. Bd3 O-O 
6. O-O c5 
7. c3 b6 
8. Nbd2 Ba6 
9. Bxa6 Nxa6 
10. Qa4 Nc7]

3 ...   Bg7 
4.Bg2 Nf6 
5. O-O O-O 
6. d3 b6 
7. Qe1 Bb7   
8. h3 Nbd7 
9. g4 Re8 
10. Nc3 Nc5 

and if here White tries to dislodge the Knight which helps to hinder e4 pawn push.... 11. b4 d4 12. Nb5 Na4 13. Bd2 Nd5 {Black  is fine.} 

Quote:


It seems to me that 4 fxe5 is compliant to Black's wishes in that it gives the king bishop a future it did not deserve (6...Bc5 and life on that diagonal) with the slow 1...d6 start. White has several viable alternatives: 4 Nc3, 4 Bc4, and even 4 d3 look better.

Good Chess! Keith

I could be wrong, but I was under the impression that 1 e4 d6 2 f4 gives White nothing after 2 ...d5!?.

Interesting idea, 1...d6.  I still prefer grabbing as much of the center as I can with 1...d5.  After all, I like playing ...Bf8-d6 whenever I can get away with it.  I guess the idea would be to play an early ...g6 and ...Bg7.  Where does Black put his King in the lines given in your book?

Quote:


Everything in Chess looks simplistic and easy once you know how, and double check it with an analysis engine. The thing is, in a real game we don't or should not have the luxury of such crutches. If we did we should all be GM's, in fact access to analysis engines, huge libraries and days to play is why I could never take correspondence chess too seriously.

Moving along, Lost Highway's line does indeed look favorable for white, but Black has other possibilities he can investigate as well, such as  9...Nc6!?, I will post some sample lines later, for now its past my bedtime.

Topster    

In the 9.e3 Nf5 line, even 10.Nf2 gives white the edge (10...Qxe5 11.Nxg4 Qc5 12.e4).

- Lost Highway

Quote:


Picking up on the 9 e3 line, 10 Nb5 looks a bit simplistic and gives Black the opportunity of creating counterplay (10 ... d5 is intriguing).  What about 10 Qd2 instead?  It's very easy to sac the exchange when White's queen is buried.  What about 10 Qd2 Qxe5 11 0-0-0 ?

Frankly, though, I'm somewhat more partial to 4 h3 & 5 e4 as discussed earlier in this thread.  It may be weakening all kinds of dark squares, but I don't see how Black can easily exploit this.  All in all, I'm not terribly scared (though regularly silly).

I still think Black needs to prove something after:

1 f4 e5 2 fxe5 Nc6 3 Nf3 g5 4 h3 d6 5 e4 g4 6 hxg4 Bxg4 7 Bb5 Nge7 8 d4 dxe5 9 d5