stonewall attack

These are nine moves played by white. May I suppose that all that time Black is moving the g8 knight back and forth?

Ummm, yes, Black is just slightly better here, because white's pieces are aiming at nowhere, but he can do even better before. Why does he have to play Nbd7?

For example 6...cd4 forces white to take back with the c pawn, and after that he is vulnerable down the c-file.

I wouldn't play 6. Qf3, but what is so bad about 6...cd 7. ed?  I don't take back with the c-pawn. 

Simple - 7. Ne5.  That is how I handle this type of position, and it is just fine for White.  I play this type of position often. 

I don't personally play the 1. d4 stuff - I play 1. f4.  Here is how I would handle this move order.

I don't think Stnewall should be played against anything black plays.Assuming you are opening with 1.f4 , a later d4 may be or may not be a good move.There are a lot of ways to play the Bird , Stonewall is not the only one.

i was present at a botvinnik sim in the seventies. Actually met the man.Anyway he was white against 30+opponents.After the event the score sheets were looked at and compared.I cannot remember one game ,him playing the stonewall attack!!!This would have been  an ideal time to save himself a lot of hard thinking etc ectra.No, botvinnik did not play the stonewall attack against grandmasters or players of similiar strength either!!!

Botvinik played regularly Stonewall.Most of these games have been played in Leningrad and Russian championships and doesn't exist in databases but have been published from Russian magazines.Games again Alatortsev , Ragozin , Rauzer, Sozin,Ilyin Zhenevsky , Kan and others.

From the games that are in databases he has played Stonewall against Flohr ,Capablanca , Reshevsky ,Keres and Averbakh(are these good enough for you?).

The fact that in a sim he didn't play it, is hardly a decent argument.

Stonewall Attack = White

Stonewall Defense = Black

Yes BirdBrain but it's the same thing with same plans and same weaknesses against the different opponent set-ups.The tempo up white has seems to do more harm than good for  Stonewall but white can adapt his game by choosing to play alot other good things and keep Stonewall for when it's effective.

Michael, I play both sides of it.  I don't see the tempo as any issue.  I think it gives White creative possibilities.  However, I do agree with pfren that the setup (although I like it) is one-dimensional.  I give it more credit than he does, but I understand what he is saying.  However, that goes back to 1. f4 in general - I mainly play the Stonewall, but there are other options I have in my belt-loop.

I think the tempo is an issue because after 1.f4 black may never play ...d5 adopting either a King's Indian defense setup or  a Queen's Indian defense set up with ...d6.In both cases Stonewall becomes ineffective.In fact Stonewall becomes inefective in any set-up with ...d6(even against 1...b5).

As black against 1.d4 it's a much easier to achieve formation and much more effective in many cases although again it can't be played against anything. 

With 1...d6, White can play other options, such as King's Gambit or Closed Sicilian, or Pirc Style. 

My case rests.

Inversely, dropping an f4 into a colle or a veresov can be effective depending

on black's play.

True , but it's not Stonewall.

Here is another way to handle it, if you are not aiming for a "pure" Bird:

Might in bullet.