Queen Pawn Game: Mason Attack

I've sort of stumbled upon the Queen Pawn Game: Mason Attack and It's been a bit more successful than other openings I've previously been using.  I guess I'd like some insight from other players as to how the opening works and how to use it to its fullest potential.  I thank anyone with any insights they find helpful and appreciate it.

It's normally called the Stonewall Attack, not considered the best for maintaining a first move advantage as White, concepts are pretty close to the same as in the Stonewall Dutch as Black.

Actualy, it's this that I'm referring to.  Sorry about not posting a diagram!

This is a refined way to play a London System.

Not bad for newbies, although fairly unambitious. While it won't give you much of anything, it will allow you to get an entirely playable middlegame.

what should I do, then?

I wouldn't recommend the London System for beginning players. If Black plays symmetrical moves, it will be extremely hard (even for experienced players) to come up with a good plan. The "advantage" that it may confer to you is your greater familiarity with it than your opponent has - but of course that will only show after you have used this opening for quite some time. And consider that your opponent doesn't need to accept the solid positions and may lash out with 2. ... c5.

If you want to play a solid opening based on 1. d4 where knowledge of opening theory is not too important, I would always favor the Colle over the London. At least I find it much harder to play against with Black

This is what i always do.

PFFFFTT...such people who play 1.d4 d5 2.Bf4 offend the chess gods and should be sent to the lowest level of hell to play yahoo chess, dine on brussell sprouts and listen to one direction for all eternity.

Only ever come across it the once and I went for 2..c5

This game is just a typical example of why it's usually dangerous to play moves like b3 and b6 before castling in queen's pawn positions. That loss had nothing to do with the opening as usual in opening discussion lol.

this is how i do it nowadays:

Learn chess, not gimmick openings.

The mason attack is far more interesting than some commenters would suggest. It can be played as a gimmick, OR you can open up the center and play a Bishop-knight or Knight-knight game, after a tradeoff of a couple pieces. Creating tension by having pieces challenge each other, and trying to set up a well-defended pawn push to e4 after castling, can be one goal. This progression seems to create new and interesting mid-game scenarios: 1. d4 d5 2. Bf4 Nf6 3. e3 Bf5 4. Bd3 Bxd3 5. Qxd3, and there is a very oddly-developed beginning game, one piece has been swapped, and white is two moves away from a queenside castle. pretty aggressive, and can be quite useful in a rapid game (say, a 3-minute bullet game).

Like so.

I am afraid I do not get much of that stuff. For example, in #13, doesn't 9.e4? drop a juicy pawn to the simple 9...Bxf4 10.Nxf4 dxe4? (the d4 pawn is hanging).

You can recapture with the knight on c3, prompting a possible swap from black. It's a common response, though. This progression often leads to knight-rook endings, which I find very interesting myself.

This is an alternative move order of the London System, not the Mason Attack. The Mason Attack is an unsound variation of an already unsound opening, 1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Nc3

That sound you can hear is Paul Keres weeing himself with laughter from the great beyond....

Exactly!

It is playable for anyone at all levels.

I've had some success with 2.Bf4 etc., but I suspect that part of the success is due to the surprise element: Few chess players know this opening, let alone expect it. One practice of mine that differs from the other examples is that I try to make long castling. This enables a full front attack on black's king, as soon as the centre is settled. It is risky business,of course, because black can counterattack. But that's just what makes chess fun to me!