A full Black repertoire grounded in answering 1…e6 against any move! The answer against 1. d4 is the Stonewall, while the answer against 1. e4 is the French. The Stonewall Dutch is a defense that nowadays has a dodgy reputation, but this is ungrounded. It is true that Black willingly creates a bad bishop, but I have both improved on modern theory, as well as offer some odd-looking, interesting, and innovative new ways to play this once renowned (and soon-to-be renowned!) defense. A defense that powerhouses such as Viktor Korchnoi used to play a lot is not being scrapped and thrown into the bin, as much as people nowadays believe it should, but rather shall be revitalized and spring to life anew. As this book binds the Stonewall Dutch with the French, our move order is 1. d4 e6 2. c4 f5. If White wants to transpose into the French with 2. e4 after having played 1. d4 and has learned all of the theory to do so, then let them. The French Defense needs no introduction. Oft derided and dehumanized, I have heard throughout my chess career even hereunto that the French is refuted, that it is a forced loss, that engines would slaughter it; I have heard it all. As the ethos of this book is flexibility I present to you several different answers within these two opening complexes. While the Stonewall Dutch is not known for flexibility—indeed the pawn structure is often locked and fixed before move ten— there are some new, outlandish-looking ideas that are seldom played that will serve you well and give you a longtime surprise factor. This type of surprise factor means that you will not have the ‘one-game surprise’ whereby your opponents catch on to your ideas and then you get slaughtered in all your following games. What I mean is that you can keep using these seldom-played ideas, and your opponents start scrambling for weeks or months trying to find a killer answer, banging their heads against the wall, only to find out that none exists. Opening theory accepts these ideas as totally playable, and in many cases, at least as good as the ‘traditional’ main lines, new theory in these once seldom-played lines will grow and blossom into the main lines of the future. We will see this in the 1. d4 part of the book. Coming up with answers to White’s tries to dodge the main lines after 1.c4 and 1.Nf3 was cumbersome to say the least, but I have found something interesting. I shall leave this as a surprise as well. In modern chess every opening book must be diligently checked with engines, often I do not choose the engine’s top choice. This does not mean that Black does not equalize in my recommendations—he does—it is just that I have chosen weirder, offbeat variations that hold. All in all, this book gives you a full fighting repertoire against all of White’s first moves. While the next World Championship contenders probably will not follow my recommendations, perhaps they should! Other than making this repertoire as akin to street-fighting as possible, I have backed it up with highly rigorous and painstaking computer analysis using cloud engines that make the repertoire bulletproof.
