Way back when I read How to Think Ahead in Chess: The Methods and Techniques of Planning Your Entire Game by Horowitz and Reinfeld the book lead me to believe that winning with the Stonewall was easy; it wasn’t.
The book deals with one opening for white, the Stonewall Attack, and the Sicilian Dragon (OK) against 1.e4 and Lasker's Defense (good and simple) to the Queen's Gambit Declined for black.
Of course, these days the Dragon has a whole lot more theory than was ever presented in the book, but Lasker's Defense remains a solid and fairly easy way to meet 1.d4.
The concept of the Stonewall Attack seems simple enough, but for some reason black never rolled over and died like the examples in the book. After a bunch of losses I gave it up.
I have Andrew Soltis’ book on the Stonewall (a much better one!) and he says, “The Stonewall...is one of the simplest to play and yet it is one of the rarest to be found in tournaments...at least on the master level.”
As often happens with these kinds of books, the authors only give games where your opponent obligingly falls in with your plans and the authors often ignore refutations and stronger lines in order to prove their point. This is not the case with Soltis.
In these so called “system openings", claims to the contrary, you cannot avoid the study of variations. In the case of the Stonewall Attack you cannot play it by simply posting your pawns on c3, d4, e3, and f4 and then deploying your pieces in typical Stonewall fashion with Bd3, Nf3-e5, Nbd2, Qe2 or Qf3, O-O, etc. No, you have to play moves that respond to what your opponent is doing.
Here’s my lucky win against what appeared to be a fairly strong opponent on Chess Hotel who I managed to beat with the Stonewall.
Tartajubow–Anonymous1–0D00Chess Hotel (10 min + 10 sec)2023Stockfish/Komodo
Stonewall Attack 1.d4 d5 2.e3 c5 This pretty much precludes the Colle and
the Stonewall because now if 3.Bd3 c4 3.d3 3.dxc5 c6 4.c3 a5 5.b5
is equal, but the position is nor what white wants if he intends playing the
Stoneneall or Colle! 3...e6 3...c4 Of course...you can't argue with
Capablanca! 4.e2 c6 5.f4 f5 6.f3 e6 7.0-0 d6 8.c3 White is lucky
if he has equality in this position. Kreymbourg,A-Capablanca,J New York 1911 3...c6 4.c3 e5 5.dxe5 xe5 6.b5+ d7 7.xd5 xb5 8.xe5+ is equal.
Garaev,S (2293)-Stupak,K (2227) Minsk 2005 4.f4 Why white avoid c2-c3 and
black ...c5-c4 is a mystery. b6 4...g6 I've always liked the fianchetto
against the Stonewall and Colle ever since I saw a game (which I cannot
remember!) by Euwe decades ago. 5.c3 Now things are starting to look
familiar. c6 6.f3 h6 An odd square for the N, but there is no way for
white to take advantage of it. 7.0-0 e7 8.e2 Rather pointless. Why not 8.
Nbd2? c4 9.c2 0-0 10.e4 A demonstration in the center is all white has. 10.h3 intending a K-side advance does not seem to lead to anything
worthwhile. f5 11.f2 d7 12.g4 d6 13.e5 xe5 14.dxe5 14.fxe5 e4 15.g2 f6 is good for black. 14...e4 15.xe4 dxe4 16.d2 c6 Black is
better. 10...e8 11.g5 Not bad, but keeping a spatial advantage with 11.
e5 was a little better. g6 A mistake that weakens the Ks position. 11...e5 This is the equalizer. 12.fxe5 12.exd5 is an error, but it does lead to
a messy situation where a lot could go wrong for either side. exd4
Threatening a discovered check, so... 13.xh7+ f8 14.b3 xg5 15.a3+ e7 16.d6 g6 17.dxe7+ g7 18.xg6 d3+ 19.f2 xf2+ 20.xf2 xg6 with
complications that should favor black. 12...xe5 13.f3 d3 14.xh6 14.xd3 For the moment white must avoid this. cxd3 15.xd3 dxe4 16.xe4 f5
with an active position. 14...xh6 15.xd3 cxd3 16.xd3 dxe4 17.xe4
Black is a P down, but his two Bs should be enough compensation. 12.d2
This develops, but it's too slow. 12.e5 xg5 13.fxg5 f5 14.f2 d7 15.h4 and white's K-side attack should prove very dangerous. 12...dxe4 12...e5 as previously noted would have kept black in the game. That said, things get
very complicated tactically! 13.fxe5 13.xf7 This is not quite sufficient.
xf7 14.fxe5 cxe5 15.exd5 g4 Black is better. 13...xg5 14.f2 xe5 15.xc4 dxc4 16.xg5 hg4 13.xc4 c7 14.xe4 f5 15.g4 Planning a P
assault. 15.d5 is an interesting tactical shot. exd5 16.f6+ xf6 17.xe8+ g7 18.xf5 dxc4 19.xc8 xc8 20.e4 and white has stolen the
exchange. 15...g7 16.f5 Playing 16.Ne3 first was stronger. Maybe in th
future there will be an additional sacrifice on f5! exf5 16...gxf5 17.f4 d8 18.ed6 should prove decisive. 17.f4 d7 18.gxf5 xf5 White can
start feeling confident of victory. 19.d5 More solid would have been 19.Rae1
d8 This loses quickly. 19...xd5± 20.f6+ xf6 21.xe8+ g7 22.e3 xe3 23.xe3 White is up the exchange, but black is not without some play on
the K-side. 20.dxc6 bxc6 21.ad1 Bringing the last piece into play and
black's Q has nowhere to go. d7 22.e5 f6 Trying to break the grip on the
dark squares around his K. 23.xf5 Asd mentioned in the note to white's
15th move. gxf5 24.g2+ f7 25.b3 The threat of a discovered check is
always a nasty one! 25.ed6+ xd6 26.xd6+ and there's a mate in 16! f8 27.f4 b6+ 28.h1 c5 29.g1 c6 30.e4 xe4 31.xe4 b7 32.g8+ e7 33.g7+ d8 34.c7+ xc7 35.d5+ c8 36.xa8+ b8 37.c6+ d8 38.d7# 25...fxe4 25...e6 also runs into mate. 26.ed6+ xd6 27.xd6+ f8 28.f4 xb3 29.h6+ e7 30.g7+ e6 31.f7+ e5 32.axb3 e7 33.h5 g8+ 34.f2 d5 35.f4+ e6 36.xd5 xd5 37.xf5+ e5 38.xf6 e2+ 39.xe2 e8+ 40.xe8 c5 41.d4+ b5 42.c7+ a5 43.c5# 26.d6+ f8 27.g8# White got
far more out of the opening than he should have! 1–0
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