Hello again, and welcome to chessopenings.com. Today's video is all about the Dutch Defense, which begins with the moves, pawn to d4 and pawn to f5. With this aggressive move, Black aims to stop White from playing the move, e2 to e4, and he also hopes that later this F pawn will turn out to be a thorn in White's side. On the other hand, Black is taking a big strategic risk in the Dutch Defense. Let's take a look.

The Dutch Defense is a counter-aggressive reply to the Queen's pawn opening. With pawn to d4, White threatens to create an attractive pawn duo, with the move, pawn to e4. Now, typically to restrain White from playing the second pawn to e4, Black plays either d5 or the move, knight to f6, both bringing the e4 square under control. But to reach the Dutch Defense, Black plays the more radical move, pawn to f5, and with this move, Black is saying, "Not only am I going to grip the e4 square, but I'm going to do so in a way that helps me to gain space, and maybe even some attacking chances on the king's side later in the game." Now, White's most popular option in this position is the move, g2 to g3, preparing to situate the light squared bishop on the long diagonal where it will be best suited.

Now, a couple of natural developing moves follow, knight f6 and Bishop to g2, and it's at this point that Black needs to choose from a variety of different setups. He has about three major setups here. If you place e6, there are still two main ideas connected with this move. After the move, pawn to c4, Black can head to the very popular Stonewall Variation, which begins with the move, c6, and then after knight f3, again a radical move by Black here, pawn to d5, setting up a wall in the center, which gives this opening the name, The Stonewall. On the one hand, Black has a very firm grip over the e4 square, making it very difficult for White to even imagine this kind of advance to e4. However, at the same time, Black has weakened his dark squares, and he's also given himself a bad bishop on c8, and it's based on these details that White can still fight for an advantage.

On the other hand, there's also another idea connected with pawn to e6, which is also quite interesting, which is just the simple move, Bishop to e7, preferring classical development. And now after Knight f3, castles king side, and pawn to d6, Black has a very restrained setup, which offers him some decent chances. For example, he may play for the move, pawn to e5, at some point here, or he may swing the queen to h5, or both, trying to generate some attacking chances in the position, thanks to this advanced pawn on f5. On the other hand, White does have a basic advantage in the center, with his two pawns. His bishop on g2 is aggressively placed, and once again the opinion is that White should have a slightly better position, but that these lead to very interesting positions for both sides.

The positions after e6 are highly interesting to explore, but today I want to look at a popular formation known as the Leningrad Dutch, beginning with the move, pawn to g6, preparing to fianchetto the dark squared bishop. Now, quite often play continues with kind of a long stream of basic developing moves, knight to f3, bishop g7, castles king side, castles king side, c4, and then pawn to d6 when a highly interesting position arises. Now, Black's big dream in this position is to prepare the advance of the pawn to e5, achieving an attacking duo of pawns in the center. In fact, if Black would achieve this, he may even stand somewhat better. However, White has a space advantage in the center, and a much easier time developing his queen side pieces.

For example, White generally plays knight to c3 here, and this is an option, which the knight on b8 does not have quite so easily. He has a more difficult time finding an attractive square at the moment. On d7, it's not quite as actively placed as the knight on c3, and on c6 that knight is just going to get kicked by the move, d4 to d5, and we'll see this actually in just a moment here. Also, I want to point out that White's bishop on g2 puts subtle pressure down this diagonal, which makes it a little bit tricky to find the right square for this c8 bishop. In fact, it tends to stay on c8 for quite some time, maybe coming out to some sort of unattractive position on d7 very soon. In order to start working on his plan to activate the position, Black normally plays the move, queen to e8, preparing pawn to e5, but before we take a look at that, I do want to take a look at this move, knight c6, which we just mentioned. This move also supports e5, but it looks a little bit crazy, since it runs straight into the move, pawn to d5, with tempo, by White. However, Black has an idea here. After the move, knight e5, and the trade of knights on e5, Black knows that he's accepting some weaknesses, with the weakened pawns on e5 and e7, doubled pawns. However, his goal is to show that the pawn center on e5 and f5, this duo in the center, offers him attacking chances.

So, for example, if White plays the standard reaction, which is very popular, if he plays pawn to e4, Black's actual idea is start a pawn storm with the move, pawn to f1. This appears to be a pawn sacrifice, but, in fact, the pawn cannot be captured, since after G takes f4, Black has two good continuations. He can play either immediately knight h5, which leads to interesting complications, or he can also play more straightforward with E takes f4, and in the event that Bishop takes f4, there is always the move, knight takes e4, with discovery attack against the bishop. So after the move f4, there is actually no opportunity for White to just go ahead and capture this pawn.

Black is now ready to set up his pawn storm. Next move he'll play pawn to g5, and he'll be looking for ways to bring this queen into the attack on the king's side. It's with these sorts of positions in mind that Black actually plays the knight c6 line, and also the Leningrad Dutch in general. However, there is a drawback to this setup. If White knows the key plan, what he'll do is he'll play queen to b3, and this sets up a long-winded plan, which I don't want to show too many reactions for Black here, but I do want to show what this plan is for White. The plan is to play pawn to c5, bishop d2, knight a4, bishop a5, and now we're starting to show our hand. We're starting to attack this pawn on c7, and Black has to look out for moves like Pawn to d6. He also has to look out for the rook moves to the center, and this is a big advantage for White if he can achieve this position without too many problems. And it's based on these ideas that Black has ultimately started to avoid playing knight to c6 in the position which we mentioned.

Backing up to the position after knight c3, instead of this move, knight c6, let's now take a look at queen e8, and this prepares the advance e5, without any of the risky adventures that we just saw. Now, to help neutralize the advance of the E pawn, White still simply plays the move, d4 to d5, and this sets up a situation where Black's advance, pawn to e5, could be met with the En Passant capture: D takes e6. In this case, I think it's White that benefits from the opening of the game, since after, let's say, bishop takes e6, the Knight quickly pivots to this square on d4, and we are unleashing the potential of this light-squared bishop, with a direct threat to b7. And so, it's due to these factors that, for the moment, Black cannot even consider playing the move, pawn to e5, very seriously.

Instead, Black's main idea here is to make use of the newly weakened dark square on c5 for his knight, and one way to do this would be to simply rush in with my a6 to c5. Another method would be to first solidify the square with the move, pawn to a5, and this has the point that once the knight reaches c5, White will not find it easy to play the move, b2 to b4, kicking the knight out. White has a couple of different options here. For example, one plan would simply be knight d4, aiming to bring e6 under even more control, and so making it that much more difficult for Black to play e5. And now simply after knight a6, White might simply play b3, preparing Bishop b2, and this is one idea, which seems very reasonable for White. Another idea is to prepare an exchange of dark square bishops, with bishop e3, queen d2, and then bishop h6. This is also quite a natural idea for White in this position, and both options seem to offer White a little bit of an advantage.

Finally, let's take a look at the Knight a6 move, without a5 to prepare it. Now, the main line continues, rook to b1, which is preparing this move, b2 to b4, and if you look closely, you'll notice that it's somewhat depressing to find an option to help Black activate his position. White appears to just have an excellent game, and can play moves like knight d4 and b4 at his leisure, and meanwhile that strong pawn on d5 is making it difficult for Black to advance his E pawn. So it's with these considerations in mind that Black plays bishop to d7, and now after the move b4, the idea is c6 eliminating that pawn on d5. So that after D takes c6, which, in fact, White almost always plays, Black will capture with B takes c6, and we've reached another key position of the Leningrad Dutch. Black has successfully eliminated the d5 pawn, and so he's coming closer to organizing his counter- play in the center and later on, the king's side. However, White hopes to target the weakened queen's side, especially that pawn on c6, before Black has a chance to successfully hold the position and get some counter chances going. It seems that these situations are a little bit risky for Black, but they're also probably quite playable.

That's all for today. I hope you've enjoyed this brief tour of the Dutch Defense with particular focus on the Leningrad Dutch. Ultimately, these lines have an aggressive, but somewhat risky reputation for Black. There are plenty of ideas in this video for both sides. That's it for today, and I'll see you soon.

Dereque Kelley - Copyright © 2013 ChessOpenings.com