@tafl:  As Maureen O'Hara used to say, tank you.

This is a review written by IM Ari Ziegler ...by many known from his excellent chessbase DVD of the french defense.

The text is (without perfection) translated from Swedish.

Win with the Stonewall Dutch

by Johnsen and IM Bern with big help from the Stonewall expert and great champion  GM Simen Agdestein. 


It has happened a lot in the Stonewall since GM Simen Agdestein began playing it in the mid eighties. Many think of how solidly the pawns just stand there on the white squares like roadblocks. But today  black players dare to use the pawns more dynamically. All of a sudden the c6 -pawn rushes to c6 , and the f5 pawn runs to f4 .....with or without the support of the his "little brother" on g5 (g7). The lightsquare bishop which earlier almost always went to h5 (c8-d7-e8-h5) is nowadays often seen standing on  b7 or a6. White players with a superficial understanding of the Stonewall dutch will most likely be completely chanceless against an experienced Stonewall specialist. Small differences may be crucial, which favors the careful player. 

The book's approach is very well thought out. Instead of just being a theorybook right up and down, you can say that it is a book built on ideas, or a book of concepts. Normally modern opening books consists of a small section with instruction of how to play the opening and the rest often consists of a large section with theory. In this book, we find the opposite. The instructive parts of the book takes a very big amount of space and  at the end of each chapter, a small modest theory section can be found. 

When we "come out of the starting block", the first hurdle consists of the main variation g3 followed by a later b3. The white players often chose to either play the bishop to b2 or (more often) try to exchange the monster on d6 by playing  Ba3. Twelve well selected games show us all the ideas we need to know to play the Stonewall either with white or black. Then we can play the Stonewall with confident against anyone. But if we need to ...we can always take a look at the final theory section. 

After this we can read about the ideas with Dc2, and after this the book put some questions to the Lf4 variation and  the book continues this way chapter after chapter. Everything is reviewed. 

Perhaps we should say some words about the way the authors write this book. The authors ask questions and give answers with a spirit that reminds us of the old Sokrates. It is often said that the questions are more interesting than answers, and here the authors have tried hard to find the questions that the reader wished that you would have asked him. Except this the books also has some small exercises and summaries (conclusions). 

The authors could have confined themselves to deal exclusively with the main system, but not! They go through all kinds of sidesteps that white can play to avoid the Stonewall, something that starts as early as move two! 1.d4 f5 2.e4......avoiding the Stonewall at any price, the sooner the better!! (white seems to think) ..., Panic! ... Well it could work if the authors not had taken a tough stance against the little "Staunton boy"and with all the other mischievous children (crazy g4 systems, 2.Lg5 and more). 

Here is a complete defense against 1.d4 in a very appetizing form. Recommended!



p.s MNB did put a question to somebody so sorry for just posting this text over his question. So he possibly waits for an answer on his question...sorry .

As White my main repertoire is Catalan/Slav.

"What do you play after 1...e6?  The French? "

No, I continue with 2.c4 and ... Nf3

Göran wrote on 06/23/09 at 16:00:47:


What do you play after 1...e6?  The French?

I doubt it is the most challenging but I play myself 1 d4 f5 2Ng3 followed by Bg5.
You don't have to know too much theory.

Thanks a lot for your reviews. It was very helpful.
I have ordered the book and also ordered Dutch Stonewall (Everyman Chess) by Jacob Aagaard (Paperback - 28 Feb 2001) for £12.74 at Amazon/UK.