I have been trying out the Stonewall with White, and would appreciate any comments on the following game.

S.

first, thanks for taging me as a friend, I liked this game and I will look into it Today.

Well, it looks like you put your pieces on their obvious squares, and then your opponent fell over. Well played, of course.

I think your opponent shouldn't have made all those exchanges, he shouldn't have made all those pawn moves in front of his king, and he should have had some idea of what he was going to do himself :-)

thanks...gg

I used to play the stonewall with both colors. Black's first mistake was playing c5-c4. It's common knowledge in the stonewall that the opponent relieving the tension in the center with advancing the c-pawn is generally bad strategy.

What made me give up on the stonewall (and ultimately started using myself to great effect) was when I'd play masters and they would play the same formations and thematic breaks. Namely, a kingside fianchetto followed by a timed f3-e4 pawn break in the center (for black it would be f6-e5). The side with the stonewall is forced to make serious positional consessions as a result, so it's very hard to refute.

I used to play it too.

you might find some interesting lines by looking at my content (on my profile).  I have a few stonewall games there.

It's amazing to me how the Stonewall is so solid for white yet black often finds ways to keel over so quickly. He really should never have considered chucking his g pawn forward like that...maybe he just wanted the pain to end.

19. Bxh6 looked pretty crushing. You've got Qf5 coming up in response to Bf6 and gxh6.

What is nice about the Stonewall:

- it plays itself

What is bad about the Stonewall

- it is hard to come up with plans if your opponent puts up an effective fight for the center: e3, e4 and e5 are particularly vulnerable.

In this game, your opponent started attacking on Q side (I have used this strategy with some success BTW) but did not get his pieces to properly support him, so the entire scheme came to a quick and ignominous end. Next, he abandoned the centre completely. Finally he weakened the King side in almost helpmate fashion.

What you did well: you placed your pieces nicely, you then used your pawns to breakthrough in the centre, and finally used your central advantage in text book fashion.

In other words, nice game for you, and a good one for your opponent to put behind him.