When it rains it pours. IM Robert Bellin’s groundbreaking debut on the Classical Dutch came out 25 years ago (with an update in 1990) and until recently it was still the most topical book on this opening. Now two books have just appeared within the space of a few months. PLAY THE CLASSICAL DUTCH by IM Simon Williams follows on the heels of The CLASSICAL DUTCH by Polish IM Jan Pinski (to see Donaldson’s review of that book, click HERE). Both books deal primarily with the line 1.d4 f5 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.g3 Be7 5.Bg2 0-0 6.0-0 d6, also known as the Iljin-Zhenevsky system.

In the past the main line was always 7.Nc3 Qe8 8.Re1 Qg6 9.e4, but both Williams and Pinski consider this to be clearly better for White. They also both agree that Black is fine after 7…a5 and 7…Ne4. The difference is that Williams feels the latter is clearly Black’s best move, going so far as to give it an exclamation mark. There is not a lot of material on the position after 7...Ne4, and what is available is often not of high quality. The result is that Williams has written something quite unusual today in Chapter 3 – few game citations and lots of original analysis which looks to be of a high standard.

Williams does not confine himself to the Iljin-Zhenevsky system, but also takes a detailed look at an old Alekhine favorite, 6...Ne4 as well as systems with ...Bb4+. The book is rounded out by a look at White non-fianchetto systems, anti-Dutch systems without c4 and the Dutch versus 1.c4, 1.Nf3, etc. Reading this book, one can see that there is sufficient variety inside the Dutch to have it as one’s primary weapon versus 1.d4 throughout their career.

Recommended

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