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Chessville
From the
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When I reviewed Neil McDonald’s earlier Starting Out: The English, I was favorably impressed: he had produced a very readable and instructive book that was going to help many club players (and up?) confidently open with 1.c4. Now the author / Grandmaster / chess coach has come out with Starting Out: The Dutch Defence, and I am convinced that he has produced another winner. McDonald strikes just the right balance of enthusiasm and caution, strategy and tactics, illustrative games (50) and analysis. Standard in the Starting Out series, he provides “Tips” (light bulb at the side of the text), “Notes” (identified by an icon of a clipboard) and “Warnings” (skull and crossbones) along the way.
A standard Dutch Stonewall position
The Classical Dutch
The Leningrad Dutch standard position McDonald plays the Dutch, has written about it – The Dutch Leningrad (1997) – and is a contributor to the “Daring Defences” section of the internet site ChessPublishing.com, which covers 1.d4 f5. He has a realistic view of the “often exhilarating, sometimes frustrating, but always exciting world of the Dutch Defense.” Playing such a defense involves a certain amount of risk, the author cautions, but its best feature is that – “there is simply no way for White to deaden the struggle.” A list of contents shows how much you get as you start out:
Which variation of the Dutch to play? The Stonewall, the author says, has the least amount of theory to memorize; the Leningrad, the most. However, he suggests that even someone planning to specialize in the Classical or Leningrad should be knowledgeable about the Stonewall pawn structure, as there are times when Black will need that type of formation. Current play in these variations sees Black set up the Stonewall, and then detonate it at the right time, for good play; Black works for …e6-e5 in the Classical, or makes a timely transposition to a Stonewall formation; and Black has to trust in his inspired counterplay in the Leningrad, even as everything crashes down all over the board. (McDonald suggest that the good news is that you will likely have fewer boring draws and more wins if you take up the Dutch; however, the bad news is that you probably will have more losses, too. No matter – I’m taking up 1…f5!) In any event, while the first three chapters might cause the master little worry, the average club player will likely face irregular lines, and will need to have some kind of plan to survive them (see the game below), so they are a nice asset to the book. The pages of Starting Out: The Dutch Defense are well laid out, with good use of space, bolding and fonts. Each diagram (about two per page) has a pithy descriptive caption. The “Tips” are cautionary or analytic, but memorable (“If you don’t know what to do in the Classical Dutch as Black, stick a knight on e4. The chances are that it is the best move on the board.”), as are the “Warnings” (“WARNING: If you want to play the Dutch well you have to keep your eyes open all the time for tactics. You won’t get very far relying exclusively on general principles.”) This is not a “Black to Play the Dutch and Win” kind of book, but, rather, a “How to Put More Excitement Into Your Game” monograph. Perhaps as a result of this book, more players of the white pieces will want a copy for themselves, just to see why they’re facing the Dutch more and more – and what to do about it. Relying on one of McDonald’s “Tips” – “Every Dutch player needs a sense of humour.” I’d like to finish with a short game which the author annotates: “A first round knockout in the Dutch: 1.d4 f5 2.h3”
Wrong! If Black stops mate on g6, he drops the rook on h8.
Therefore he has nothing better to do than reset the pieces and try 1…f5
again – if he dares! This has happened countless times, for example in
the game Maly-Schmid, Hamburg 1989.
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