Is this good use of the Dutch Defense?

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StrategicusRex

This is a long game in live chess that i have played recently.  He opened with d4 and I decided to try my hand at the Dutch defense, particularly the stonewall variation.  I think I did rather well up until the end where I made a game costing blunder.

It was unrated though, so we just drew the game, but it was all over for me by that point.

Here is the game.  I don't think I made any major mistakes until the one I'm talking about.  Correct me if I'm wrong though.

I am the black pieces.  Please examine this game and tell me if I messed up somewhere.

skunkape

 I use that same opening alot but it depends on who your playing some times they dont know how to counter it and some times they do. But you should always have a back up plan, you can almost always turn this into a other counter attack but it al depends on who your playing.

Best of Luck,

                 Jared Laughing

chessguy254

9...Nh5- This move does neither helps your knight in any way nor does it help get your knight involved in the game.    I understand this move in the case of a dark squared bishop on f5 or g6, but without them this is really a waste of a tempo. This led to the loss of your knight.  He had 3 minors up to ur 2. How does your knight help on that square? "A Knight on the Rim is Grim" applies to this case. Wink

10 Bd7- Must as well retreat it rather than be down in material.  This clearly shows how exposed your knight is on the h file.

13...Qb8- Although this move attacks his iso pawn, it is really a waste of a move.  I see your plan of bringing out his f pawn so you can exploit it  with ur g pawn but very well dangers your kingside.  Not a good plan in this case. 

18...exd5- Take with the other pawn if u hope to help support your pawns on the kingside.  Also, this move creates potential for ur opponents e pawn in the future, and isolates your c pawn while your down in material. 

Hope This Helps :)

joshgregory7

i dont like nh5 either and you underestimate the value of pieces over position becuase your attack was not as scary as you thought. so losing that knight was a blunder and your move where you double up rooks was a huge blunder because of this:

joshgregory7

i cant belive i missed this before, but 22...Qf8 is also a blunder there is no reason for him not to take your rook.  you had plenty of blunders so do not dismiss how important it is to lose a knight then give away a rook(for a bishop)

StrategicusRex

I said that I blundered badly with the rook sacked by the bishop.  I admitted that was a blunder.

Scarblac

Thank you for commenting all your moves, that gives us something to work with :-) Sorry if these comments sound very negative. Chess is a game where good moves are the norm, and mistakes are commented on. And unfortunately you did make some blunders.

From the start:

I don't really like 8...Na6. It should probably go to d7 instead. Knights on the rim are dim, is the saying. But this is minor.

Instead of Nh5, your knight should have gone to e4 - Ne4 is one of the main ideas of the Stonewall. The knight on d7 could go to f6 then, or at some point help achieve e6-e5 (when and if that is good).

Then this comment after 10.Ne5:

Now if he plays Qxh5, then I regain the knight with Bxe4. 

Two obvious things wrong with that (not counting that you meant Bxe5):

- You don't regain that knight with Bxe5, since that is just an exchange, white takes your bishop with dxe5

- When he did play Qxh5 next move, you don't play Bxe5, and yet your analysis makes no mention of this at all!

The result is a piece down and a completely lost position!

After 11...Be8, you talk about "continuing your attack", but you aren't even attacking yet.

12.Bxe5 dxe5: you're exchanging material when down a piece, not a good idea: it brings a losing endgame closer. Also, his e-pawn isn't isolated (after all, he still has a perfectly good f-pawn).

13...Qb8 moves your queen all the way to b8 to attack a pawn that can be easily defended; you're not thinking of a plan!

I considered offering a queen trade, but then I didn't because I knew that I had to exploit his dark square diagonal weaknesses and with my dark bishop gone, my queen was the only piece I had with which to do that.

More importantly, you are a piece down! When you are down in material, you need to avoid endgames since they will always lose; the player who is up material tries to exchange pieces (6 vs 5 pieces is not as clearly winning as 1 vs 0 pieces).

About 21...Bh5: you are correct that after 22.g4, Bxg4 would be the right move, but not because of an open h-file and so on; those are worth way less than a piece. Rather 22.g4 Bxg4 23.hxg4 Rxg4+ wins the queen and two pawns (worth "11 pawns") for rook and bishop (worth "8 pawns"). You would be back in the game!

23.Qh4: "Attack my rook". It was already attacking the rook from f4, and he could have taken it for free (your Qf8 stopped protecting the rook).

I think you have three lessons to learn from this game:

- Material is important. As a rule of thumb for beginners, people often say that a minor piece (bishop, knight) is worth 3 pawns; a rook is worth 5 pawns; and the queen is worth 9. The exact numbers are debatable but don't really matter. What matters is: a difference of 2 is plenty to win or lose the game with, even if from then on you play perfectly. Don't drop material!

- When you are down in material, avoid exchanges. The standard way to win with extra material is to trade down into a winning endgame; you should not help your opponent implement this plan.

- Develop your pieces towards the center. Nbd7 instead of Na6; Ne4 instead of Nh5.

chessguy254

sorry if my last analysis sounded harsh, i meant it as constructive criticism.  In reality, you have a good though process as to the fundamentals of chess but there are little things you could improve on

Alphastar18

Don't worry too much about your opening, instead worry about those blunders you mentioned. Focus on tactics instead of the opening. It'll pay off.