Dutch DefenceA80 – A89
Black's first move puts a pawn on f5 and every move after it is arranged around that pawn: …Nf6, …g6, …Bg7, castle, …d6, and then …Qe8 to prepare …e5. That is the Leningrad, and the point of it is that the f-pawn is already halfway to being an attack. Once …e5 is in, the pawn pair on e5 and f5 rolls forward with …f4 and …g5 behind it, and White's king is the target. White's best answer is not to stop …e5 but to meet it with d4-d5, closing the centre and playing on the queenside with b4 and c5 — the same two-wing race as a King's Indian, only with Black's pawn a square further on. What goes wrong is nearly always early: the pawn on f5 weakens e6 and the a2-g8 diagonal for good, the king behind a fianchetto is loose along the h-file, and a bishop on g5 or a knight on c3 before the set-up is finished can leave Black without a plan. Know the second move sidelines cold and the main line looks after itself.
Played by
- Hikaru Nakamura — the Leningrad Dutch was his weapon against 1.d4 for years, played to win rather than to equalise
- Bent Larsen — played the Dutch throughout a career built on refusing to defend quietly
- Mikhail Botvinnik — a world champion who trusted the Dutch in title matches, and whose Stonewall games are still the textbook
Model game
Gelfand – Nakamura, Tata Steel, Wijk aan Zee 2012
Next: d4
