Dutch Defence

The Dutch Defence is a chess opening characterised by the moves

1. d4 f5

Elias Stein (1748–1812), an Alsatian who settled in The Hague, recommended the defence as the best reply to 1.d4 in his 1789 book Nouvel essai sur le jeu des échecs, avec des réflexions militaires relatives à ce jeu.

Black's 1... f5 stakes a serious claim to the e4 square and looks towards an attack on White's kingside in the middlegame. However, it weakens Black's own kingside somewhat, and does nothing to contribute to Black's development. As of 2006, the Dutch is unpopular in top-level play. It has never been one of the main lines against 1.d4, though in the past a number of top players, including Alexander Alekhine, Bent Larsen and Paul Morphy, have used it with success. Perhaps its high-water mark occurred in 1951, when both world champion Mikhail Botvinnik and his challenger, David Bronstein, played it in their championship match.

White most often fianchettoes his king's bishop with g3 and Bg2. Black also sometimes fianchettoes his king's bishop with ...g6 and ...Bg7 (the Leningrad Dutch), but may instead develop his bishop to Be7, d6 (after . . .d5), or b4 (the latter is most often seen if white plays c4 before castling). Play often runs 2.g3 Nf6 3.Bg2 e6 4.Nf3 (4.Nh3!? is also possible, intending Nf4-d3 to control the e5 square if Black plays the Stonewall Variation) Be7 5.0-0 0-0 6.c4 and now Black chooses between 6...d5 (the characteristic move of the Stonewall Variation), and 6...d6, the Iljin-Zhenevsky System or Fluid System, rarely seen today.

White has various more aggressive alternatives to the standard 2.g3, including 2.Nc3 d5 3.Bg5; 2.Bg5 (hoping for the naive 2...h6 3.Bh4 g5 4.Bg3 (4.e4!? is also playable) f4? 5.e3 fxg3?? 6.Qh5#); and 2.e4!?, the Staunton Gambit, named after Howard Staunton. Though once a feared line, the Staunton Gambit only scores around 50 percent today, and accordingly is rarely played in high-level games. A number of gambit lines with g4 are also possible, including Korchnoi's 2.h3!? intending g4!? on the next move.

The opening's attacking potential is shown in the Polish Immortal, in which Black sacrificed all of his minor pieces.

 

The game below is a great Dutch game:

 

 I think you should print it in articles, not in the forum

about the game:

I'm preety sure that the game is transposed to king's indian defence... 

29.Qxa2 Qd1# so white can't get of the diagnol, and there is no place at the diagnol, as you said... so white can't use his queen, so he need to defend his rook in a differet way...
29.Rf1 loses to  Ra1+ losing a rook
29.R(somewhere else) loses to Ra1+ followed by Qd1#

i have always wanted to play the dutch as it fits into my playing style (pirc, king's indian, semi-open). but i guess i am afraid of all of the possible theory around the opening... maybe i should get over it and just play it! because i am sick of the KID :(

"I'm preety sure that the game is transposed to king's indian defence..."

 

One of the features that characterizes the King's Indian Defense is a bishop at g7. This game has not transposed to a King's Indian. The presence of the bishops on b4 and b7 is typical of the Queen's Indian defense, but there is a big difference between having a pawn on f7 or f5, so this isn't really a Queen's Indian defense either.

yes. i thought the benoni post was very good too, but the articles section is more appropriate. Can they be moved?

I play only queen pawn openings myself and while I usually use the colle system, whenever anyone plays the dutch against me I always play the Staunton gambit today.  It may be theoretically okay for black, but nobody I've played is playing lines at the quality of a 2500+ player, (who would be strong enough to handle the gambit in its strongest threoretical lines) and I've found that this game leads to vicious attacks, open lines, and scurrying black pieces.  My father played the Dutch against queen pawn openings 20 years ago until he read about 2200, then gave it up specifically because of the Staunton.  He ended up opening against both King pawn attacks and Queen pawn openings with pawn to King three, and transpose either into the French defense or ...I think it would be a closed form of the dutch if one played f5 afterwards?  I could be wrong about that.  Anyways I have a game going on currently where I played the Staunton and its very exciting and quick, and black is already in dire straights.  So yes, at the highest levels this gambit may not be played often, but I still think for club level players it is an interesting response to the Dutch. 

 

 

 Here is the game I just finished playing the Staunton in.

 

Great article on the Dutch Defence.  I do have to agree though, that this is more suited for the article section rather than the forums.

Hey that's me!

I play the Dutch Defense occasionally.  After trying the Stonewall and Leningrad, I think that it is a good counterattacking opening, but shouldn't be the primary response to d4.

Why in the world would you copy this article off of Wikipedia???  First, Wikipedia is not necessarily reliable and it's the first entry that comes up after you type in Dutch Defence in Google.  Did you copy and paste or something?

good game.

If you want to play on the white or black side of the Dutch against me, leave a message.

 I gonna play duch in my league match

I like the Black side

I like to play the hopton. It’s not JUST the trap and is an actual opening that is really good.

It can be dangerous 🔥

The only problem with the Leningrad is that you leave a massive hole on e6