Openings · A80–A99

Dutch Defence

1…f5 — take e4, unbalance the game on move one, and accept a loosened king for the rest of it.

1.d4 f5played as Black

Play it through on the board below, and 6 moves into the main line.

Practise the line

You play Black; the other side answers on its own. Nothing here is saved or graded. The line runs on past the moves that define the opening and into the main line, because two moves is not a drill.

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
h8
g
f
e
d
c
b
a
Your move 1 of 40/4
  1. 1.d4f5
  2. 2.g3Nf6
  3. 3.Bg2g6
  4. 4.Nf3Bg7

White is answering…

The idea

There are three Dutches and they have almost nothing in common. The Leningrad plays …g6 and …Bg7 with …d6 and a later …e5; the Classical plays …e6, …Be7, …d6 and …Qe8 with the attack on the h-file; the Stonewall plays …e6, …d5, …c6 and …Bd6 and takes e4 for good.

All three attack on the kingside, and all three pay for it on the a2–g8 diagonal and the e6 square. Choosing which one, before the game, is most of the work.

Common mistakes

Three that come up again and again below master level: named traps and the errors every coach corrects.

Chasing the bishop on g5

After 8.Bg6#
  1. 1.
  2. 2.
  3. 3.
  4. 4.
  5. 5.
  6. 6.
  7. 7.
  8. 8.
The mistake
Answering 2.Bg5 with …h6 and …g5, and then trapping the bishop with …f4.
Why it costs
The bishop is not trapped, it is bait: 5.e3 offers it, and after 5…h5 6.Bd3 Rh6 7.Qxh5+! Rxh5 8.Bg6 is mate on move eight. The pawns that went hunting are the reason the king has no cover.
Instead
2…Nf6 or 2…g6, and let the bishop stand there. In this opening the kingside pawns have one job, and it is not chasing bishops.

The Stonewall's bishop

After 8.Ba3
  1. 1.
  2. 2.
  3. 3.
  4. 4.
  5. 5.
  6. 6.
  7. 7.
  8. 8.
The mistake
Building the wall — …e6, …d5, …c6 — and leaving the bishop on c8 inside it.
Why it costs
That bishop is the known problem of the whole system, and White's standard plan is to trade the good one off it: Ba3 or Bf4 offers the exchange of dark-squared bishops, and after it Black is left defending light squares with the piece that cannot reach them.
Instead
…b6 and …Ba6 or …Bb7 early, or …Bd7–e8–h5. Getting that bishop out is not an improvement to the position, it is the position.

Leaving the king in the middle

After 7.Qf3
  1. 1.
  2. 2.
  3. 3.
  4. 4.
  5. 5.
  6. 6.
  7. 7.
The mistake
Treating the opening as a normal one and taking time over development.
Why it costs
…f5 opened the e8–h5 diagonal on move one, and checks on h5 exist for the rest of the game. Every tempo spent answering one is a tempo the kingside attack never gets, and the king cannot always castle out of it in time.
Instead
Castle early and accept a slightly worse version of the setup rather than a much worse version of the game. In the Dutch the king is the thing being paid for the space.

What the engine says

After 1.d4 f5, these are White's six best moves according to Stockfish, with the bar showing White's chance of winning. The whole list sits within 2 percentage points of win chance: none of them is a mistake, and the choice is about the positions you want to play.

  1. Bg5+0.6
  2. c4+0.6
  3. g3+0.6
  4. Nf3+0.6
  5. Bf4+0.5
  6. e3+0.5

The engine's main line from Bg5: Bg5 h6 Bh4 g5 Bg3 Bg7 e3 Nf6.

Stockfish 18, depth 24. Scores are in pawns from White's side. Another engine or depth will move individual numbers a little; the picture does not change. How we check.

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