RoleyPoley wrote on 11/20/21 at 15:11:58:

It's true this is common, but major omissions tend to get fixed more often than not, even if sometimes it takes a long time.

But in some cases the "High" and "Medium" support levels Chessable use turn out to be false advertising. If the reality is an author won't ever update or even comment on the course beyond the first week or two, they should be upfront about that and mark the support level as "Low" or "Community" from the start. The Killer Dutch Rebooted does have a "Community" support level now I believe, but it was changed to that more than a year after publication, after several complaints.

Simon Williams is an engaging presenter and writer with many fans, so I'm sure he would sell lots of courses even if they were honest about what support level to expect. It's mostly stronger readers/viewers who get frustrated when important theoretical problems are pointed out but never fixed or even attempted fixed. And they especially don't like being lied to.

"The Killer Dutch Rebooted" is the exact same title as his Chessable course.

I sincerely hope any novelties or new lines that show up in the book will also be added to that course. Buyers have been asking for additions and fixes almost since it came out, but there was nothing after the first week or so despite a supposedly "High" support level originally. The most glaring omission was 7...Ne4 (the only 7th move really covered) 8.Nxe4 fxe4 9.Ne1 d5 10.Be3!, which has also been discussed a bit here on ChessPub. I think there were also some doubts about Simon's lines against the London.

Having myself to play against people in the1600-2200 fide elo range in tournament games, I'd like to say that the video series in chess24 by Roeland Pruijssers is very good. Well explained and deep enough.

He (Pruijssers) advocates for 7...Qe8 in the mainline. Contrary to Sicilians and French, you will be getting a lot of mainlines, so this decision is very important (7...Qe8 vs 7...c6). I think the queen move is sharper (and riskier) but I play Leningrad to try to win and get a complex game.

Good luck with the Leningrad !

Sandman wrote on 02/04/21 at 00:27:40:

Perhaps you'll need more than one book. One important decision you have to make is which line to play after 1.d4 f5 2.g3 Nf6 3.Bg2 g6 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.O-O O-O 6.c4 d6 7.Nc3.
As an intro I'd suggest GM Moskalenko's Diamond Dutch. It's not a repertoaire book, so you'll need more. But he discusses many (not all) problems you'll meet when searching your way in the Leningrad jungle.

While I’m asking, which book is best for anti-Dutch lines as I plan on playing 1..... f5

Turns out its the leningrad dutch specifically, Ive been facing so much.

I have several books on the Dutch, but Kindermann's book really stands out. It's loaded wih information of the highest quality. Also the selection of lines is clever and well done. So even against strong opposition (2300) I'm usually doing well just relying on Kindermann.
The worst book on the Dutch I've come across is Pinski's book on the classical dutch. It's very confusing. This is a pity and strange because another book of Pinski I have about the two knights is just downright excellent.

Funny that so many mentions Avrukh, I don't really see the appeal of the system he advocates. Not very critical imo, but it'll need less updating - which is a trap many d4-repertoire books fall into. Spending most of their energy on the different Indians and then giving something 'simple' vs the Dutch before sending in the manuscript.

Btw, on the Iljin, it's main GM practitioner Simon Williams has a 6 hour dvd on it and if you want a second opinion at times, then Pinski's book on it could be worth having too.

The Dutch Stonewall book published by gambit a few years ago, 2009. It was written by sverre johansson, IM Ivar Bern, GM Adgestein. I just love the fact that the dutch stonewall doesn't have to be played like an idiot with a Knife charging a pill box. Black can play on the queenside and in the center. The book lucidly demonstrates many plans in every variation that will pose your opponent serious problems.

IM Ivar Bern is a correspondence GM and he plays the stonewall dutch, thus it is tested at the highest levels with on going computer analysis.

up and comer wrote on 12/31/11 at 06:15:18:


To play it yourself, you could begin with McDonald's Starting Out book and go on to for example Kindermann's book if you want to play the Leningrad.

But it's not an opening you read about and then know. The most important is playing it a lot and analyse where and why things went wrong. As black you can expect about 60% d4+g3 systems, the tricky thing is knowing what to do against the other 40% which ranges from the solid but toothless all the way to very wild gambits.

The bonus is that if you play it consistently with black, you'll end up with a large armoury of ideas to test when facing it with white.

TN wrote on 12/31/11 at 09:46:16:




Well, for the White side, there should soon be Wojo's Weapon vol. 3, I think.

For the Black side, it depends on what line you are thinking of. Kindermann and MacDonald has published on the Leningrad. Sverre Johnsen and Ivar Bern wrote a nice book in Win with the Stonewall Dutch. There are many more of course, just the examples that came to my mind.

To play against it, and to play it yourself? I have no book knowledge on it, but have been seeing it a lot in tournaments. I want to know it completely and understand how I should play and the plans I need to use from both sides.