The Dutch Defense is one of the most fun, aggressive and versatile opening choices for black against 1.d4.

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The Dutch Defense is a very powerful weapon to add to your repertoire. It’s an opening system rather than an opening with an exact move order, and it can be reached via many different moves, and played against many different openings white chooses.

It can be employed against the Reti, English, and even Nimzo-Larsen, but the main line Dutch is played against d4.

The idea behind the Dutch is to challenge the center straight away by playing f5, thus taking control of the e4 square, and making it very hard for white to expand in the center. The downside of the move f5 is that it weakens the black king in more ways than one. It weakens the seventh rank, and both diagonals looking at f7.

Both sides have plenty of options at their disposal after the starting moves 1.d4 f5. White could choose to enter the main lines, but he could also play the London system (with Bf4), the Raphael variation (with Nc3), the aggressive Staunton Gambit (with e4, giving up a pawn), or the Hopton attack (Bg5). The normal way for white to play, though, is with c4, g3 and Bg3.

Against these main setups for white black can choose between three different systems withing the Dutch defense; the Leningrad Dutch, the Classical Dutch, and the Stonewall Dutch.

The Leningrad Dutch is a combination of classical and hyper-modern chess openings. It combines central control with quick piece development and a kingside fianchetto.
The Classical Dutch is the most flexible, least committal, and very similar to the QID in its nature. One of its main downsides is the bad e7 bishop.
The Stonewall Dutch is the riskiest of all three systems. It’s also most aggressive – an opening in which black either wins or loses. Draws are veeery rare.

I am going to be covering each of the systems and variations in separate videos in the series. I hope you enjoy it!

#chess