Part of it is understanding the ideal position for the opponent. Many amateurs as Black make the mistake of walking into the Dutch with premeditation of playing a Stonewall, Classical, or Leningrad. They have no clue what they are doing.
Take the Leningrad player. After 1.d4 f5 2.g3 Nf6 3.Bg2 g6, 4.h4 would be very loosening of White's Kingside. After 1.d4 f5 2.Bf4 Nf6 3.e3, the move 3...g6 is dubious at best. White now has h4 with of 5.h5 and a sac of R for N because White's Queen is unblocked from h5, but 3...d6 4.Nf3 g6 is fine. No more h4-h5 tricks.
Now the Stonewall. The stonewall should be a last resort, not a plan. Think about what 1...f5 does. It blocks the bishop on c8. Play e6 to support f5 and keep control of the central light squares and the bishop is even worse. So think about what Black really would like to do. After getting the center under control with f5, Nf6, and e6, Black would ideally like to play 4...d6 and 5...Bb7, not 4...d5. So this is why White plays 2.g3 and 3.Bg2. Now, after 1.d4 f5 2.g3 Nf6 3.Bg2 e6, white has a choice to make and so does Black. Black does not want to trade dark squared bishops unless it inflicts damage to white's structure. So if 4.Nh3 with the idea of going to f4 with the knight or bishop, the stonewall is bad. Black should go into a classical with 4...d6 and play for e5, taking f4 away from White. If White goes Nf3, it does not dominate f4 and a stonewall, dominating e4 and playing for an f4 advance is Black's plan. Going noncommittal with 4.c4 and black should aslso not commit via 4...c6 instead of the dubious 4...d5 5.Nh3!.
So what you have to do as White is actually study all of Black's ideas in the Dutch and play around with move orders to get desired positions for White. The reason White players at the amateur level have such problems against the dutch is that they don't understand that there is no 1 "variation" that White can cling on to. It is not Luke other QP openings where you have say, a Rubinstein Variation, or an Exchange variation, or a Four Pawns Attack.
In the opening phases of the dutch, it is all about preventing Black's desired maneuvers, like fianchettoing his Queen's Bishop, and trying to leak as little information as possible and to get Black to commit. For example, after 1.d4 f5 2.g3 Nf6 3.Bg2 e6 4.c4 c6, some masters have tried 5.Nc3, continuing to not commit the g1 knight and Black is out of waiting moves. He can play 5...Be7, but now he commits to the old Be7 stonewall rather than the more modern approach of Bd6, or else the classical, where now you know to go to f3. If he plays 5...d5, then 6.Nh3.
I know you were looking for a simple answer, but there does not exist one. With ideal play, 1...f5 is a little weaker than 1...d5 or 1...Nf6, but most amateurs do not understand the nuances or how to take advantage and instead have a premeditated plan against the Dutch which will never work. have to be flexible to beat the Dutch.
Hi everyone,
So, I am a 1.d4 player and the only black defense I seem to have issues with is the dutch defense. I have tried to play both a black and white to try to get a good grasp on it, however whatever the side I just seem to not manage to play sound plans in this kind of positions, I just have a lot of troubles understanding how it works.
I play Catalans, Gruenfeld, Alekhine's Defense, KID, QID, Benonis...etc... just fine, but I seem to allways feel like a clueless monkey in the dutch-type positions, especially the stonewalls structures. I used to play the Czech Benoni and the modern defense, so no, it's not just the closed nature of the position that bugs me.
Does anyone have pointers to good ressources to understand the typical plans and ressources availble to white? I don't necessarily want to avoid the dutch as I think it should not be particularly dangerous for white if they know what they are doing, just some pointers as to what types of plans are typical in this family of positions.
In general I try to prepare and play for the e4 pawn break. The lines in which I had the most success outoplaying my opponents were lines where I challenge their Bd6 bishop by putting my bishop on f4 (while having fianchettoed on the kindside earlier), and let them trade the bishop (putting my g3 pawn on f4) to assure a firm grip on the e5 square, then proceeding to use the open g-file for some active play while black takes too much time rerouting his pieces to releant squares. However if I don't get the opportunity to play for this plan I feel my handling of the position is just very poor.
Any help/pointers?