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I took up the Classical Dutch about 8 months ago, and so far it's served me well in tournament games. Before that, I had mostly alternated between the Nimzo/Bogo Indians and the Noteboom/Semi-Slave complex of openings. I currently own The Classical Dutch by Pinski and Play the Classical Dutch by Simon Williams. Between these two books, the main lines are covered pretty well, as are 2nd move deviations like 2. Nc3, 2. e4, and 2. Bg5. However, I'm having some trouble finding useful guidelines about how to play against miscellaneous setups with d4, c4, Nc3, e3, Bd3 (or Qc2), Nf3 (or Nge2), etc. For instance, Pinski's book does an OK job covering 1. d4 f5 2. c4 Nf6 3. Nc3 Nf6 and then 4. Nf3, 4. e3, and 4.Qc2, but he misses some reasonable looking setups and concentrates almost exclusively on 4...Be7 to all of these moves. On the other hand, Simon Williams deals mostly with 4...Bb4, only considering 4. Qc2, 4. Bg5, and 4. Nf3 after 1. d4 f5 2. c4 Nf6 3. Nc3 Nf6. Williams' coverage is especially thin; he keeps 1. d4 f5 2. c4 Nf6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Nf3 Bb4 to under a page, for instance (and gives 5. e3 Bxc3+ as fully satisfactory for Black, stopping there!). The whole chapter where this is covered, called "Classical Dutch with ...Bb4(+): White Avoids Fianchettoing" is only 7 pages long, which is pretty ridiculous considering that in many lines and illustrative games he seems to recommend transposing to the Nimzo-Indian line 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e3 b6 5. Bd3 Bb7 6. Nf3 Ne4 7. Qc2 f5 (or similar). I like Williams' book very much, as he has given a lot of original analysis on the main lines of the Classical Dutch. However, I would like to find a book with a good discussion of these Nimzo/Dutch and QID/Dutch hybrids (and other setups). I know there are subtle nuances here that Williams and Pinski gloss over; for instance, when to put the knight on e4 transposing to a Nimzo, when to play ...b6 and ...c5, etc. I've seen McDonald's book Starting Out: The Dutch Defence, but don't like it very much (and it doesn't deal with the positions I'm curious about). I tried looking in Strategic Play (a great book by Mednis), Mastering the Endgame Vol. 2 by Reshevsky, The English Defence by Daniel King, and various other books like Zurich International, 1953, but most sources cover these lines skimpily or not at all. Can anyone recommend a good book that does? Perhaps an older Dutch book by Robert Bellin, or even a middlegame treatise like Euwe's two books? I'm desperate to find some more sources that deal with lines like 1. d4 f5 2. c4 Nf6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Nf3 Bb4, 1. d4 f5 2. c4 Nf6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. e3 b6, 1. d4 f5 2. c4 Nf6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Qc2 Bb4, etc. Sorry for the long post!
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