Learning the Leningrad Dutch

is that really your only argument?

one underestimated variation is this one.

I think black has very interesting play contrary to the risky Ne5 variation.

okay sure black has serious Light squared weaknesses, but his play is active as both e5 and c5 are followed commonly.

You should read at this site the item: What is the best counter towards the dutch defence.

I for myself have never well understood the dutch defence, but there were some skillfull participants at our site who were so kind to give a good explanation about the nature of this opening and how to play it in different versions. That are the answers you can find at this site for yourself behind this item.

I admire your tenacy to play this difficult opening. Because I must admit that I always try to avoid this difficult opening with white and with black. So give it a go and go for it !!!

Dude ignore the players telling you to drop the leningrad study because of your rating, thats a bad arguement as for the most part you're probably going to be playing oppentents of a close enough level it won't matter. That said I do have to add that I really doubt you're going to be able to find one 'geared' towards your particular level, so you're probably going to have to suck up the dense analysis and be ready to seek advice and exsplaination often if you want to study it.

I feel like I'd be doing you a disservice if i didn't meantion how crucial tactics drills are, as even if you achieve a superior postion out of the opening its not going to do you much good if you dont see a way to make threats and punish sloppy play by your oppenent. Almost just as important is analysising the hell out of your own games specially with someone a lot stronger than you

yo Noreaster, have you been to http://www.fpawn.com/chess/IntroDutch.htm yet? it's a nice lil' starter doc on the dutch.

i'm trying to learn some leningrad myself, and have been checking out both the McDonald books...  so far i think the Starting Out one is the better one to read first, but they are pretty similar, anyways

i also just got the 1989 Dutch Defense by Silman and Christiansen. it has a ton of text, but its super old-school and hence 80's-computer-print-dry. silman is pretty great in general, tho

also as a side-note:

people being all like "oh thats much too complicated for someone at your level" ... that's garbage. useless, pretentious, pathetic. and plain douche-bag-y

 for just an honest question here on an a few opening books? total troll

hope you have fun w/ the dutch! and post here what you thought about the books when you finish em

How ironic is it that I posted a video on youtube today about this opening? (I didn't bump this thread)

Also, btw, ive played the dutch my entire chess career. I dunno, its a life long defense that I feel like you can learn a lot from

42% ironic.

That moement when you realize the dutch is just not a fundamentally sound opening.

I play the Leningrad a fair amount. My current suggestion is Kindermann book. I started with the “Play the Dutch” book. My thoughts are that I like Kindermanns book more as it focuses on Qe8. Tho at times it can be a very hard book to understand. The “The play the Dutch “is nice as it is for sure easier to understand. Both have different lines in the 2.Bg5 lines. Kindermann focuses on g6. And the starting out is set on h6. As a summary I like Kindermann book.