I have only played the Stonewall Dutch once in a tournament.  I won’t say that I played it on a dare, but the best player I know was playing at the table next to me and thought I was criminally insane.  Success followed me that day, but I couldn’t bring myself to repeat the Stonewall.  Well, that might have changed.

“Win with the Stonewall Dutch” is an excellent example of how chess understanding changes because of energetic ideas found by fresh eyes.  For at least theee decades the combination of the weak e5-square and the the bad bishop on c8 brought universal condemnation of the Stonewall Dutch, keeping it relegated to club level games.

For some reason, players in the 80’s began to rethink some of the questions about the defense.  Younger players, unfazed by certain dogmas, applied their ideas, giving the Stonewall acceptance to a new generation.  This book describes the summation of those efforts in offering a complete opening system for Black.

Johnson and Bern have developed the material into 4 “chapters” along with 12 “lessons”.  The chapters provide an introduction along with covering some general principles.

While the material in the “chapters” is valuable the real work is in the “lessons”.  Each lesson deals with an approach for White against the Stonewall, considering move orders and strategic goals instead of straight analysis of variations.  Each lesson has a short introduction, followed by example games, an exercise for the reader and finally the “theory” is divided into sections in order to explain basic differences around the moves chosen.

This approach works excellently as the reader is provided the factors to consider in playing the opening, instead of working to memorize lines of analysis which must later be questioned.  These components are weaved together, usually through references from one to another, to develop a feel for the defense.

Examining the games in a lesson illuminates some of the thinking Stonewall players use in dealing with the situations presented.  Giving the reader an exercise in each chapter is not really a new idea, but here it is incorporated to include the reader in the development of material.

The theory given isn’t conclusive - that would likely take a much bigger book - but grounds the reader in the state of affairs for a White approach.

An illustration of how the components are integrated and the effect of this is in Lesson 2.  Under consideration is the line 1.d4 f5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.g3 e6 4.Bg2 d5 5.0-0 Bd6 6.c4 c6 7.b3 Qe7 8.Ne5:

Theory is in two parts, first investigating small bits leading up to the main variation, and the second theory pulling an alternative for Black at move 9 with 9…Nbd7.  The result of this is that the reader is shown the main course of high level games, some of the thinking involved, then asked to become involved to find alternatives for Black in a critical position and finally brought up to speed on current understanding of the line.

I enjoy this approach quite a lot, though one hang up is that the solutions to exercises are at the end of the book and so a reader will be going back and forth.

One reason that I was hesitant to play the Stonewall is the number of ways White could play against it.  Not only was Black “condemmed” in the mainlines with a kingside fianchetto for White, but also lines with Bf4 as well as move orders from 1.c4 or 1.Nf3 looked too good for White.

The authors have done a great job of producing a complete work.  Lessons in each of the points that worried me are given along with the anti-Dutch 2.Nc3/2.Bg5 and Staunton Gambit.  Even the exotic 2.Qd3 and 1.d4 f5 2.Nf3 e6 3.e4 are given space.

The lesson on the Reti/English is quite valuable for Black and gives plenty of food for thought.  A personal disappointment was the authors using previous analysis of the London system versus Dutch.  The rest of the book was so fresh that this came as a bit of a let down, though a very small one.

I am sure that new ideas and valuations in lines have likely already come to light since the publication of this book, but it remains an excellent work for a player looking to bring the Stonewall into their armory.  Because of the strength of the writers, and the complexity of material, this book might be a bit bewildering for players below the 2000 level, and even some above, yet it could well act as one of the steps along the road upward.
 

From the Publisher's website:

• Download a pdf file with a sample from the book.

• The authors are all from Norway. Sverre Johnsen is an enthusiastic chess analyst, researcher, organizer and writer, and co-author of Win with the London System, one of the most popular openings books of recent years. Ivar Bern is a Correspondence World Champion and an International Master over-the-board. Grandmaster Simen Agdestein was for many years Norway's leading player, and also achieved fame for combining his chess activities with a career as a top-level professional footballer.

Chessville
logo by
ChessPrints
 

Ranked #1 by Google
"largest chess database''

The
Chessville
Chess Store

The
Chessville
Weekly
Newsletter

Subscribe
Today -
It's Free!!

The
Chessville
Weekly
Archives
 

Advertise
with
Chessville!!

Advertise to
thousands
of chess
fans for
as little
as $25.

Single insert:
$35
x4 insert:
@ $25 each