Dutch Defense

Does anyone use Dutch defense when playing black. I've always been scared to open a game up like that, because it looks scary leaving the king open like that, he looks vulnerable....but I've surprisingly won a lot of games using this opening. Is anyone a little more familiar with this opening? Looking for its strong points and weak points, but mainly the weak points in general. 

I was playing a lot of Leningrad Dutch a while ago, less so now. My understanding is not deep, I basically try to arrange e5 in one move at the right moment and take it from there. There's something aesthetically pleasing about it to me in the arrangement of the black pieces and the potential for kingside attacks, but I don't think it's the most stable of opening choices. I found that strong white players were able to pinpoint the weak squares, especially the a2-g8 diagonal. I suppose that would be true of any opening vs a strong player though. As black a single slip can be fatal as its quite precarious - its easy to get wiped off the board without even landing a punch. Also the main lines with white playing g3 and Bg2 are solid enough but there are also several tricky things white can try which need an accurate response eg.

1.d4 f5 2.Bg5

1.d4 f5 2.e4 

1.d4 f5 2.g4

Or variations of the above with Nc3 and/or Nf3 included. There are others too. You don't have to have quite the same immediate concentration or knowledge of variations in a Nimzo-Indian for example. Anyway, if you enjoy it then continue to use it and learn as much as you can 👍

Of course, if you play the Classical/Stonewall lines with ...e6 rather than the Leningrad, you can avoid all 3 of those sidelines given if you can tolerate the French Defense.

1.d4 e6.  Now 2.Bg5 is a blunder, 2.g4 is just silly, and 2.e4 is a French Defense.  After 2.c4, 2...f5 and you are in a Dutch having avoided many sidelines.

Regarding the Dutch Stonewall Defense, what are Black's options/chances if castling queenside??

Pretty non-existent.  The King, in the Stonewall, goes either Kingside or stays in the center, the former over 90% of the time.

That's true. Getting there with 1. e6 is great advice. The large majority of people who start with 1. d4 are not going to go into a french with 2. e4 so you almost don't even need to worry about it. Have some idea but you don't need to spend too much time on it.

The Dutch can be amazing - but only if you know the lines all the way toward setting up an attack. Otherwise the position will fall apart like Swiss cheese in a meat grinder. Whoever has the best coordinated attack first often wins. Study some Chessable with the Ginger GM!

The idea that the Dutch weakens the kingside is a bit of a fallacy. White has not moved the king's pawn and has no way of exploiting the apparent weakness without doing so. After O-O the f pawn is a strength, not a weakness, so Black hurries to develop the kingide and should be fine. The only way to exploit the supposed weakness without giving Black the required tempo is 2.e4. Black can either allow this and fight a double-edged battle with a pawn up or avoid it by playing 1.e6 and only then 2.f5, which is my preference. 

I don't think that's quite true. The weakness caused by f5 persists even after castling and white still has the pieces on the board to exploit said weakness. It doesn't need to be exploited instantly to be weak, it just needs to be possible to be exploited. For instance, if white has no queen or light squared bishop then that diagonal isn't weak because it can't be exploited although the individual squares on that diagonal will still be weak but that isn't quite as bad as an entire diagonal. I haven't studied the Dutch but I would be willing to bet that in GM games where white wins, the weak king is exploited in a large percent of them. That is the nature of an opening where black plays in such a combative way. Black is essentially trading king safety for attacking chances in the hope that the attack will be decisive before the king's weakness can be exploited. However, in the stonewall it seems like white creates a kind of shield wall on the light squares with their pawns so it becomes more difficult to exploit but I would guess that one of whites major plans is to crack open that pawn shield to get at those weak squares.

    I tend to agree. But it could be argued that black's control of e4 offsets that weakness. And trading king safety for an attack is not an unusual strategy in chess, for black or white. Most telling in the stats, though, is the fact that the Dutch has one of the lowest percentage of draws in master level play. It's queenside counter part, the Sicilian, is almost as low, but with a higher percentage of wins. And since black rarely castles queenside in the Dutch, your assertion that white's victories are due to kingside attacks is almost certainly accurate.

    On my measly level (I'm about 1700 now), I usually go straight for that f5 pawn with the Staunton gambit, or even 2.h3, 3.g4. These work well for me with white in blitz. I'm too impatient, and scared, to play them in longer time controls.

I play the Classical Dutch. But via 1...e6.  98% of the time you do not have to worry about 2. e4. 

Then 2...f5. This avoids practically all the 'anti-Dutch' lines.

White's best plan against the Dutch is actually to attack on the queenside, which is why the mainline involves fianchettoing the king's bishop. I think if you look at those master games you'll see that the kingside attacks usually come from Black. The a2-h7 diagonal is not weakened as long as Black has a pawn on e6,, as in the Stonewall, which got its name for a reason. And from my own experience, most of my wins come against White players who think they have to throw everything at the kingside.

What I find interesting is that the Dutch is considered 'suspect' with normal play...yet so many people (and people who create courses on Chessable or have those 'win with d4' repertoires...) try to get you to use all those early sidelines which are generally kingside attacks. Thus my 1...e6 2...f5 approach!

I play the Dutch Stonewall. I move d5 before f5, that avoids all the anti-dutch systems. In fact I play 1...f5 only after 1. c4.

I'm not sure it's really considered suspect. Not a top-tier opening for super-grandmasters perhaps, but there are very few of those. But I do think the mainline is strongest for White.