Dutch Defence

Looking at some of the games being played, especially amongst the
top players, there seems to be a fairly typical choice of openings and
the frequency in which they are deployed is as one might expect. For
instance, Sicilian and French are very popular, Nimzo-Indian and other
Indian defences are popular, and then KIA and Reti and Pirc
marginally less popular and so on.

I hardly ever play against anyone or see anyone who uses the Dutch
Defence (1.d4 f5 and so on). Why is this? Is it positionally or tactically
suspect? Is it inferior to the Sicillian or French or Pirc? Is it simply out
of fashion? Or am I just wrong and that lots of people use it?

I am thinking of learning the very basics of it since it looks like a very
interesting play but won't if it's not a good idea/not worth it.

Mark
The Squirrel Lover

The Dutch is so cool, i play it sometimes and so does Shirov and so
did Alekhine
it is very beautiful and very interesting
Janey
x

I wish someone can explain this:
When you push the Fpawn,you are exposed to a Queen check on that
diagonal.
mari.

True, but after 1 Nf3 the Queen is blocked by the Night, so you're
fairly safe.
Rich

I think the other diagonal is more dangerous, Mari: a2 - g7. That's why I ran into difficulties sometimes with the Leningrader.
That closes the h5 - e8 diagonal, but not the other one. Gilbert.

I play Dutch here on RHP. I also play sometimes f5 against 1. Nf3. See my game with Islanddoc (1.Nf3 f5. 2. d4. etc.) I have
good results with it. I used to play Leningrader in my OTB times (f5 and g6 instead of e6) but with mixed results. Probably I
didn't do my preparation good enough. Gil.

If 1.e4 f5 then is there anything white could play so as to spoil black's
attempt to play a Dutch defence? (I'm looking at all this from black's
point of view, how could black cope with a surprise).

Rein is being very kind in going through a few things to do with the
Dutch defence and I was just looking for a second opinion. He
suggested to me that white could play 2.Bg5 thus preventing black
from playing ...e6. Is there any way for black to get around this? (Rein
made the point that black could play ...e6 (or ...g6) on his *first*
move and then ...f5 on his second).

Mark
The Squirrel Lover

Yes.The Staunton Gambit-2.e4

I would never recommend f5 against 1.e4.
1. e4 f5? 2. exf Nf6 3. d4 or 3. Be2 and white has clear advantage.
Or does anybody have a different opinion?

I guess you mean. 1. d4 f5. The move 2. Bg5 is interesting indeed. I
had this in the game 103404 AnomAsil - Sintubin. I played h6 (g6 is
also possible) and that lead to sharp play. Interesting and a bit wild.
And it has the theme that Mari was referring to about the weakness of
the diagonal h5 - e8.

Gil.

Yes, I did indeed mean d4 and not e4. Thanks for your answers Gil,
appreciate it :o)

i like to play the dutch defence too. usually i would play it via 1d4 - e6 2c4 - f5 jacob aagaard's
book on the dutch stonewall is a real inspiration for me. its about understanding the dynamics in
the position rather than regurgitating theory (plus computers struggle with the stonewall set up!)

I am a d4 player, I have played approximately 75 games at RHP so
far. Assuming I have white half of those games, thats somewhere
between 35 and 40 d4's, and not one dutch. Good point T1000. I
would assume that the 1600 and up crowd probably sees a bit of it.