Dutch Defence
Encyclopedia
The Dutch Defence is a chess opening
characterised by the moves:
(1748–1812), an Alsatian
who settled in The Hague
, recommended the defence as the best reply to 1.d4 in his 1789 book Nouvel essai sur le jeu des échecs, avec des réflexions militaires relatives à ce jeu.
, Bent Larsen
, Paul Morphy
and Miguel Najdorf
, have used it with success. Perhaps its high-water mark occurred in 1951, when both world champion Mikhail Botvinnik
and his challenger, David Bronstein
, played it in their World Championship match in 1951
. Among modern elite chess circles, its only consistent practitioner is world top-ten player Hikaru Nakamura
.
White most often fianchetto
es his king's bishop with g3 and Bg2. Black also sometimes fianchettoes his king's bishop with ...g6 and ...Bg7 (the Leningrad Dutch), but may instead develop his bishop to Be7, d6 (after ...d5), or b4 (the latter is most often seen if White plays c4 before castling). Play often runs 2.g3 Nf6 3.Bg2 e6 4.Nf3 (4.Nh3!? is also possible, intending Nf4-d3 to control the e5 square if Black plays the Stonewall Variation) Be7 5.0-0 0-0 6.c4 and now Black chooses between 6...d5 (the characteristic move of the Stonewall), 6...d6, the Ilyin-Zhenevsky System (less popular today), or Alekhine's move 6...Ne4!? retaining the option of moving the d-pawn either one or two squares.
The Stonewall Dutch enjoyed a resurgence of interest in the 1980s and 1990s, when leading grandmasters Artur Yusupov
, Sergey Dolmatov
, Nigel Short
and Simen Agdestein
helped develop the system where Black plays an earlier ...d5 and places his dark-squared bishop on d6. Termed the Modern Stonewall, this set-up has remained more popular than the traditional early ...Be7.
, named after Howard Staunton
, who introduced it in his match against Horwitz
. The Staunton Gambit was once a feared attacking line, but it has been out of favor for over 80 years. Grandmaster Larry Christiansen and International Master Jeremy Silman
have opined that it "offers White equality at best." Staunton also introduced a completely different gambit approach to the Dutch, 2.h3 followed by g4, in his 1847 treatise
The Chess-Player's Handbook. Viktor Korchnoi
, one of the world's leading players, introduced the line into tournament practice more than a century after Staunton's death in Korchnoi-Känel, Biel 1979. GM Christiansen later concluded, as Staunton had done over 140 years earlier, that Black could get a good game by declining the gambit with 2...Nf6 3.g4 d5!
The opening's attacking potential is shown in the Polish Immortal
, in which Miguel Najdorf
, using the Stonewall Variation, sacrificed all of his minor pieces to win by checkmate
.
(ECO) has twenty codes for the Dutch Defence, A80 through A99.
Chess opening
A chess opening is the group of initial moves of a chess game. Recognized sequences of opening moves are referred to as openings as initiated by White or defenses, as created in reply by Black. There are many dozens of different openings, and hundreds of named variants. The Oxford Companion to...
characterised by the moves:
- 1. d4 f5
History
Elias SteinElias Stein (chess player)
Elias Stein was a Dutch chess master.Born in Lorraine into a Jewish family, he settled in The Hague....
(1748–1812), an Alsatian
Alsace
Alsace is the fifth-smallest of the 27 regions of France in land area , and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the seventh-most densely populated region in France and third most densely populated region in metropolitan France, with ca. 220 inhabitants per km²...
who settled in The Hague
The Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
, recommended the defence as the best reply to 1.d4 in his 1789 book Nouvel essai sur le jeu des échecs, avec des réflexions militaires relatives à ce jeu.
Theory
Black's 1... f5 stakes a serious claim to the e4 square and looks towards an attack on White's kingside in the middlegame. However, it weakens Black's own kingside somewhat, and does nothing to contribute to Black's development. , the Dutch is unpopular in top-level play. It has never been one of the main lines against 1.d4, though in the past a number of top players, including Alexander AlekhineAlexander Alekhine
Alexander Alexandrovich Alekhine was the fourth World Chess Champion. He is often considered one of the greatest chess players ever.By the age of twenty-two, he was already among the strongest chess players in the world. During the 1920s, he won most of the tournaments in which he played...
, Bent Larsen
Bent Larsen
Jørgen Bent Larsen was a Danish chess Grandmaster and author. Larsen was known for his imaginative and unorthodox style of play and he was the first western player to pose a serious challenge to the Soviet Union's dominance of chess...
, Paul Morphy
Paul Morphy
Paul Charles Morphy was an American chess player. He is considered to have been the greatest chess master of his era and an unofficial World Chess Champion. He was a chess prodigy...
and Miguel Najdorf
Miguel Najdorf
Miguel Najdorf was a Polish-born Argentine chess grandmaster of Jewish origin, famous for his Najdorf Variation....
, have used it with success. Perhaps its high-water mark occurred in 1951, when both world champion Mikhail Botvinnik
Mikhail Botvinnik
Mikhail Moiseyevich Botvinnik, Ph.D. was a Soviet and Russian International Grandmaster and three-time World Chess Champion. Working as an electrical engineer and computer scientist at the same time, he was one of the very few famous chess players who achieved distinction in another career while...
and his challenger, David Bronstein
David Bronstein
David Ionovich Bronstein was a Soviet chess grandmaster, who narrowly missed becoming World Chess Champion in 1951. Bronstein was described by his peers as a creative genius and master of tactics...
, played it in their World Championship match in 1951
World Chess Championship 1951
The 1951 World Chess Championship was played between Mikhail Botvinnik and David Bronstein in Moscow from March 15 to May 11, 1951. Botvinnik retained his title.-Results:The match was played as best of 24 games...
. Among modern elite chess circles, its only consistent practitioner is world top-ten player Hikaru Nakamura
Hikaru Nakamura
Hikaru Nakamura is an American chess Grandmaster . He has been ranked among the top six players in the world by FIDE....
.
White most often fianchetto
Fianchetto
In chess the fianchetto is a pattern of development wherein a bishop is developed to the second rank of the adjacent knight file, the knight pawn having been moved one or two squares forward....
es his king's bishop with g3 and Bg2. Black also sometimes fianchettoes his king's bishop with ...g6 and ...Bg7 (the Leningrad Dutch), but may instead develop his bishop to Be7, d6 (after ...d5), or b4 (the latter is most often seen if White plays c4 before castling). Play often runs 2.g3 Nf6 3.Bg2 e6 4.Nf3 (4.Nh3!? is also possible, intending Nf4-d3 to control the e5 square if Black plays the Stonewall Variation) Be7 5.0-0 0-0 6.c4 and now Black chooses between 6...d5 (the characteristic move of the Stonewall), 6...d6, the Ilyin-Zhenevsky System (less popular today), or Alekhine's move 6...Ne4!? retaining the option of moving the d-pawn either one or two squares.
The Stonewall Dutch enjoyed a resurgence of interest in the 1980s and 1990s, when leading grandmasters Artur Yusupov
Artur Yusupov
Artur Mayakovich Yusupov is a German International Grandmaster of chess, and a chess writer.-Chess career:...
, Sergey Dolmatov
Sergey Dolmatov
Sergey Viktorovich Dolmatov is a Russian Grandmaster of chess and former World Junior Chess Champion.Born in Kiselevsk in the former Soviet Union, Dolmatov's solid yet enterprising style of play was soon to launch him to the forefront of youth chess, culminating in him winning the World Junior...
, Nigel Short
Nigel Short
Nigel David Short MBE is an English chess grandmaster earning the title at the age of 19. Short is often regarded as the strongest English player of the 20th century as he was ranked third in the world, from January 1988 – July 1989 and in 1993, he challenged Garry Kasparov for the World Chess...
and Simen Agdestein
Simen Agdestein
Simen Agdestein is a Norwegian chess grandmaster and ex-football star. He has won seven Norwegian chess championships, including the 2005 title....
helped develop the system where Black plays an earlier ...d5 and places his dark-squared bishop on d6. Termed the Modern Stonewall, this set-up has remained more popular than the traditional early ...Be7.
2.g3
White may instead play g3 immediately, prioritizing the fianchetto over the pawn move. Arguably this is inferior since it doesn't deter ...d5 and after this dxc occurs before cxd. In fact this is not an especially good move for Black. Thus in practice it makes little difference which move order is used, and the c4 move can be deferred quite a bit (e.g. 2.g3 Nf6 3.Bg2 g6 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.0-0 0-0 6.c4).Other 2nd moves
White has various more aggressive alternatives to the standard moves, including 2.Nc3 Nf6 (or d5) 3.Bg5; 2.Bg5 (hoping for the naive 2...h6 3.Bh4 g5 4.Bg3 (4.e4!? is also playable) f4? 5.e3 fxg3?? 6.Qh5#); and 2.e4!?, the Staunton GambitStaunton Gambit
The Staunton Gambit is a chess opening characterized by the moves:Black can decline the gambit with 2...d6, transposing to the Balogh Defence; or 2...e6, transposing to the Kingston Defence...
, named after Howard Staunton
Howard Staunton
Howard Staunton was an English chess master who is generally regarded as having been the world's strongest player from 1843 to 1851, largely as a result of his 1843 victory over Saint-Amant. He promoted a chess set of clearly distinguishable pieces of standardised shape—the Staunton pattern—that...
, who introduced it in his match against Horwitz
Bernhard Horwitz
Bernhard Horwitz was a German English chess master and chess writer.Horwitz was born in Neustrelitz, and went to school in Berlin, where he studied art. From 1837 to 1843, he was part of a group of German chess players known as "The Pleiades".He moved to London in 1845...
. The Staunton Gambit was once a feared attacking line, but it has been out of favor for over 80 years. Grandmaster Larry Christiansen and International Master Jeremy Silman
Jeremy Silman
Jeremy Silman is an American International Master of chess. He has won the US Open, the American Open, and the National Open, and was the coach of the US junior national chess team...
have opined that it "offers White equality at best." Staunton also introduced a completely different gambit approach to the Dutch, 2.h3 followed by g4, in his 1847 treatise
Treatise
A treatise is a formal and systematic written discourse on some subject, generally longer and treating it in greater depth than an essay, and more concerned with investigating or exposing the principles of the subject.-Noteworthy treatises:...
The Chess-Player's Handbook. Viktor Korchnoi
Viktor Korchnoi
Viktor Lvovich Korchnoi ; pronounced in the original Russian as "karch NOY"; Ви́ктор Льво́вич Корчно́й, born March 23, 1931 is a professional chess player, author and currently the oldest active grandmaster on the tournament circuit...
, one of the world's leading players, introduced the line into tournament practice more than a century after Staunton's death in Korchnoi-Känel, Biel 1979. GM Christiansen later concluded, as Staunton had done over 140 years earlier, that Black could get a good game by declining the gambit with 2...Nf6 3.g4 d5!
The opening's attacking potential is shown in the Polish Immortal
Polish Immortal
Polish Immortal is the name given to a chess game between Glinksberg and Miguel Najdorf played in Warsaw. The game is celebrated because of Black's sacrifice of all four of his minor pieces....
, in which Miguel Najdorf
Miguel Najdorf
Miguel Najdorf was a Polish-born Argentine chess grandmaster of Jewish origin, famous for his Najdorf Variation....
, using the Stonewall Variation, sacrificed all of his minor pieces to win by checkmate
Checkmate
Checkmate is a situation in chess in which one player's king is threatened with capture and there is no way to meet that threat. Or, simply put, the king is under direct attack and cannot avoid being captured...
.
ECO
The Encyclopaedia of Chess OpeningsEncyclopaedia of Chess Openings
The Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings is a classification system for the opening moves in a game of chess. It is presented as a five volume book collection describing chess openings...
(ECO) has twenty codes for the Dutch Defence, A80 through A99.
- A80: 1.d4 f5
- A81: 1.d4 f5 2.g3
- A82: 1.d4 f5 2.e4 (Staunton GambitStaunton GambitThe Staunton Gambit is a chess opening characterized by the moves:Black can decline the gambit with 2...d6, transposing to the Balogh Defence; or 2...e6, transposing to the Kingston Defence...
) - A83: 1.d4 f5 2.e4 fxe4 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 (Staunton Gambit)
- A84: 1.d4 f5 2.c4
- A85: 1.d4 f5 2.c4 Nf6 3.Nc3 (Rubinstein Variation)
- A86: 1.d4 f5 2.c4 Nf6 3.g3
- A87: 1.d4 f5 2.c4 Nf6 3.g3 g6 4.Bg2 Bg7 5.Nf3 (Leningrad Dutch)
- A88: 1.d4 f5 2.c4 Nf6 3.g3 g6 4.Bg2 Bg7 5.Nf3 0-0 6.0-0 d6 7.Nc3 c6 (Leningrad Dutch)
- A89: 1.d4 f5 2.c4 Nf6 3.g3 g6 4.Bg2 Bg7 5.Nf3 0-0 6.0-0 d6 7.Nc3 Nc6 (Leningrad Dutch)
- A90: 1.d4 f5 2.c4 Nf6 3.g3 e6 4.Bg2
- A91: 1.d4 f5 2.c4 Nf6 3.g3 e6 4.Bg2 Be7
- A92: 1.d4 f5 2.c4 Nf6 3.g3 e6 4.Bg2 Be7 5.Nf3 0-0
- A93: 1.d4 f5 2.c4 Nf6 3.g3 e6 4.Bg2 Be7 5.Nf3 0-0 6.0-0 d5 7.b3 (Botvinnik Variation)
- A94: 1.d4 f5 2.c4 Nf6 3.g3 e6 4.Bg2 Be7 5.Nf3 0-0 6.0-0 d5 7.b3 c6 8.Ba3 (Stonewall)
- A95: 1.d4 f5 2.c4 Nf6 3.g3 e6 4.Bg2 Be7 5.Nf3 0-0 6.0-0 d5 7.Nc3 c6 (Stonewall)
- A96: 1.d4 f5 2.c4 Nf6 3.g3 e6 4.Bg2 Be7 5.Nf3 0-0 6.0-0 d6
- A97: 1.d4 f5 2.c4 Nf6 3.g3 e6 4.Bg2 Be7 5.Nf3 0-0 6.0-0 d6 7.Nc3 Qe8 (Ilyin-Genevsky Variation)
- A98: 1.d4 f5 2.c4 Nf6 3.g3 e6 4.Bg2 Be7 5.Nf3 0-0 6.0-0 d6 7.Nc3 Qe8 8.Qc2 (Ilyin-Genevsky Variation)
- A99: 1.d4 f5 2.c4 Nf6 3.g3 e6 4.Bg2 Be7 5.Nf3 0-0 6.0-0 d6 7.Nc3 Qe8 8.b3 (Ilyin-Genevsky Variation)
See also
- Kingston DefenceKingston DefenceThe Kingston Defence or Franco-Dutch Defence is an uncommon chess opening. It is characterised by the opening moves:giving the position at right. . Its ECO classification is C01.The first record of the defence being played is Schiffers-Chigorin, 1880...
- List of chess openings
- List of chess openings named after places
- Stonewall AttackStonewall AttackThe Stonewall Attack is a chess opening; more specifically it is a variation of the Queen's Pawn Game. It is characterized by White playing 1.d4, 2.e3, 3.f4 and 4.c3, usually playing 5.Bd3 as well, even though the moves are not always played in that order . The Stonewall is a system White sets up,...