Why I like the Dutch defence

Many, many years ago, I played through a game between Alekhine and Bogolyubov [spelling ? ]. Alekhine played the Dutch as black and it is just about the finest game I know of,[ in my opinion, anyway ].Since then I 've always had a weakness for playing the Dutch and had some bad losses playing it ! I 've often wished I 'd played a more solid, safer defence.

Do many other players have this weakness ?

I liked the Dutch so much that for awhile, I was playing it as White! 

(The Dutch as White, is, of course, Bird's Opening: 1.f4)

I've had lots of exciting games with both Bird's Opening and the Dutch.

This is what Nick deFirmian had to say about Bird's Opening, in the 14th edition of Modern Chess Openings:

The English Master H. E. Bird demonstrated the agressive potential of this opening in the second half of the nineteenth century.  Tartakower revived it, Nimzovich won several beautiful games with it in the 1920s and later Larsen and Soltis added it to ther opening repertoire. 

It is rarely seen in modern times, but it could be due for a revival soon.  While Black experiences no great theoretical difficulties in equalizing, there is nothing wrong with White's unusual strategy of dark-square control, and surprise value should count for something.

If it's good enough for Bird, Tartakower, Nimzovich, Larsen, and Soltis, among others, then it's good enough for me. 

I found a couple of games in my database betweek Alekhine and Efim Bogolyubov.  Maybe this is the one?

I've decided to adopt the Dutch to develop into my main defence against d4. The Stonewall version.

Would be interested to what rating you managed to achieve, and whether you scored many impressive and exciting victories as well as some short losses with the Dutch.

Well, I'm an A player (1809 right now, I think.) 

Very few of the results of ALL of my nearly 300 over-the-board tournament games are due to the opening. 

To me, the goal of the opening is to achieve a playable middlegame.  Once that's achieved, it then becomes irrelvant whether I win, lose, or draw with the opening. 

To clarify, my final result is rarely due TO the opening.  No, I make my mistakes later. 

That being said, here's a Dutch win from the 1995 Tucson Open, back when I was a 1500 player:

Want to know why I first started looking at the Dutch?

I also play the King's Indian Defense as Black against 1.d4 and in many KID games, Black takes a moment to move his king knight again, so he can get in f5 and start his kingside pawn storm.

So I asked myself, "why don't I save a couple of tempi and play f5 BEFORE I've blocked it with my king knight?"

Once you do that, you're now playing the Dutch. 

I have loved the Dutch for many years.  But I stopped playing it against 1d4 because there are so many anti-dutch choices that make Black's life miserable.  I play 1...f5 in response to 1Nf3 or 1c4.

Bogoljubow vs Alekhine in a Dutch... was that the game where Alekhine went an early Bb4+ and later on did bxc3 or something to be all fancy when Qxh8 was a simpler way to win?

I like the dutch for black most of all because you can avoid the indian maze. It's simply easier to memorize one opening instead of ten (well, i exaggerate, but only a little).

Same here, except I gave up entirely in favor of the QGD/Tartakower Var.

I'm just trying to learn this - please join this thematic tournament if you're interested http://www.chess.com/tournament/dutch-thematic-tournament-1400-1700-no-vacations

One of those openings one could consider to mix things up and surprise an opponent with but I don't like the big early exposed diagonal to the king very much. It's a big target and very double edged. Later f pawn thrusts I do like but I also prefer a few things settled first then. Castled and king able to move to h etc.. 

How does The Dutch compare to KID? I ask because I've played both a little and some of it seems quite similar.

The Leningrad Dutch is basically a KID with the f5 push already done, so there's no need to make the N-h5/f5 maneuver. Whether this is a + is another question.

http://www.chessvibes.com/?q=reports/smerdons-open-letter-to-the-stonewall