Stonewall

In this series, Matt will examine the Stonewall Attack for White and display defenses which he thinks are challenging and/or interesting. Here's a prototypical Stonewall game where everything goes right for White.

This is a discussion of a tricky line against the Stonewall, the Horowitz Defense (2...Nf6 3.Bd3 Nc6). White allows Black to spend three moves capturing the light squared Bishop and bringing White's pawn from c2 to d3, preventing a ...Ne4 invasion. This makes for very dynamic ...more

In these two videos, Matt discusses 1.d4 d5 2.e3 Bf5, preventing White's Stonewall setup by beating White to the d3-h7 diagonal. The only way White can play for an advantage is to play 3.c4 with the goal of an early attack on b7. Some of these positions can also be reached via ...more

The move order 1.d4 d5 2.e3 Nf6 3.Bd3 e6 4.Nd2 c5 5.c3 Bd6 is very annoying because it discourages the key move f2-f4. Instead, White should play a different opening. He can enter a reversed Meran Defense with 6.dxc5, or a Colle System with 6.Ngf3. Matt talks a little bit abo ...more

Matt covers some lines with a black ...Bg4. He found the first game with analysis on the Kenilworth Chess Club site. Most of the analysis he gave for this game is taken verbatim, but he does mention a couple side variations that you should be curious about. So watch!

This video features 6...Qc7 in the mainline of the Stonewall, a good move since after the obvious 7.Ngf3, White turns out worse in all lines. Matt suggests an alternate development of pieces including Nh3 and Qf3. The game Van Vliet-Znosko-Borovsky, 1907, is very important fo ...more

We look this time at 1.d4 d5 2.e3 e6 3.Bd3 Nc6, a move order I am calling the Teichmann Defense, after the player who first used it. It seems like a little-explored and reasonable approach against the Stonewall. So pay attention.