That's a slightly strange review mind - the book may well be nonsense in places but the review almost seems to go out of its way to quote places where it makes sense

The points about the Leningrad/Stonewall set ups - by those move order at least - probably do stand up reasonably. 

You don't need terribly deep study to see that allowing a pawn to h6 while white keeps ahead in development isn't something black really wants to do.

The line with sending whites bishop round to a2 in order to stare at a brick wall on d5 seems much stranger.

Schroeder wrote on 11/06/13 at 22:20:44:


Is this the same David Rudel that's rated 1319?  I guess I shouldn't disparage a work because of the author's rating, but in this case...wow.  That just looked like a bunch of rambling words without any chess content to me.  I'm not surprised that his "one move refutation" isn't shown in that excerpt.   

Thank you for your kind responses. You have pointed me in the correct direction! Now I just have to do the dirty work!

As usual black needs to be very flexible, 1.d4 f5 2.Bf4 Nf6 3.e3 isn't bad, after all it's been played by for example Kortchnoi & Morozevich (in blitz).

But it seems to work best against black system players, who'd go for their Stonewall or Leningrad no matter what. For once, an Iljin set-up with 3...e6, d6 Be7 might be recommended - or Qe7 instead of Be7 and play for ...0-0-0 (Sapis-Malaniuk, Lvov 1988 being a nice example for black, unless there's something forced for white), 

or perhaps 3...d6 playing g6 vs some moves and e6 vs others - but 4.Bc4 might be a good reply. 

3...b6 or even 3...c6 (>Qb6/Qa5, d6,g6 -- e7-e5) also seem solid but are comparatively quite rare.

3...g6 may not be bad, but after 4.h4 it seems easier to play white imo - though as usual he shouldn't rely on a formula, but especially consider the pros & cons of developing Bf1-e2/d3/c4 depending on black's choice.

Rookpawn wrote on 11/03/11 at 16:18:22:


I think the move Bf4 is discussed in some of the London-threads. It risks being hit by ...d6 and ...e5.

Lately I've been running across a group of players that play Bf4 in the Dutch (mostly early) at some point and talk about The Dangerfield Attack? I haven't been able to find much on it. One site that gives the setup as Nh3 and Bf4 for white. I'd like to get an impression of Bf4 as a Anti-Dutch weapon in general. Thank you.