Breaking the stonewall

My friend ALWAYS plays the stonewall, and I mean ALWAYS, no matter what I do. Though sometimes he mixes up the order, but he always does f4, e3, d4 etc.

Does anyone know any opening that will put black in a big advantage against the stonewall?

No but playing your pawn to g6 at some point  in will neutalize white's attack.  White gets no advantage out of this opening.  The beauty of the stonewall is that there is little theory compared to the kings indian or the sicilian defense.

I haven't played against the stonewall (ever!) but what is wrong with the plan of d5 and planting a knight on that silly-looking e4 square?

You will want to attack the queenside, and probably castle that way as well, as white will be attacking kingside, usually with a pawnstorm as well.

As others have said, the early fianchetto does a good job of protecting your kingside, especially the vulnerable light squares.

Incidentally, the King's Indian Defense is known to have an edge against the Stonewall Attack, so you may want to consider picking it up.

Doesn't that just open up my king? It's pretty risky.

But that's exactly what he wants to do. He wants to trade off that f pawn as soon as possible and have the strong rook on the semi-open f-file. I think g6 is just helping his attack by opening up the king.

He just trades knight for bishop and after I take back with the d pawn, that hole isn't really a weakness anymore.

Yeah, this is normally what I do, but I was wondering if there was a better way to obliterate him, not just avoid his attack.

im sorry to say it but its nothing wrong with the stonewall. its even used in highlevel correspondencechess with success. what you can do is to castle queenside since the whole stonewall is kind of built for an easy attack on opponents king. yes white can switch over to play on the queenside but most stonewallplayers doesnt know much more about the stonewall than the sacrifice on h7 so if your king is on the other side youll get them thinking at least:)

by the way the people who recommended g6 forgot to tell you about having a bishop at g7. without a bishop there yes g6 is just a weakening move but that bishop is a strong defencive resource covering the holes and covering the h8square making the attack on your king much harder.

I am experienced with the stonewall as white especially because I used to play the stonewall dutch but didn't like the positional weaknesses. Probably the best idea is to copy what white's main line is with the stonewall dutch :d5, g6, Nf6, c5, and castle. Your plans are to 1: neutralize white's chances by exchanging light squared bishops usually via ...Ba6. It's a strong piece for attacking with in the stonewall. 2: advance on the queenside as white usually plays c3 giving a target there. 3: Win control of e4 possibly with moves like Nd6 with Nf6. If you can do this then you should have a big edge as it's long term. It's easier for white to get his knight to e5 but eventually it can be chased back with f6. Black does not have any weaknesses but white creates them in order to get a knight on e5 (temporarily) easily which can give him kingside chances but it's not like the king's indian where black can confidently push his pawns forward. white can always lose control of e5 after f6 and black may be able to break the center open with then ...e5. Which parts of the plan you use depend on white's moves. Of course the stonewall is a solid opening it's not terrible but even as white he should be at a slight disadvantage.

I agree with linksspringer.  Black should try to fianchetto on kingside.  I think that is the toughest test for white to crack because it is difficult to find a decent attack on h7.  :)

Yes. It would take awhile for black to loosen that diagonal and the bishop fills the holes. Black has plenty of long range chances against permenant white weaknesses. (also note black's queenside play can continue to the endgame) But if you allow white to have good control of e5, he could have very good attacking chances then and ...f6 could turn out too weakening as well.

but Linksspringer's idea is also quite good. This is one of the drawbacks of playing the stonewall with white: black hasn't commited his d pawn two squares as in the dutch with white so he can break open the center easily with ...d6 and ...e5 which should equalize and probably more. In fact it's probably strategically easier to play.

I play the stonewall almost all the time. The opening is very solid and strong.

But the thing I hate most is the other player castles queenside. I put all my pieces trying to attack the kingside and they castle the other way. So here are my tips to annoy the stonewall player .

1. Get their bishops Mostly the light sqaure one!

2. Put your knight on d7 to prevent white's knight from going into e5. Or you can not develop the other knight to f6 and if his knight ever goes into e5, push your pawn foward. Or you can just do that beforehand to prevent that.

3. You can make a double stonewall by playing f5. And play a stonewall as black. You can give that a try. I do that sometimes.

4. Do not trade your good bishop for whites bad one (dark sqaure).

5. It will be a closed game in the opening but an open one in the endgame. If you fail to capture the bishops (white's bishop) try and keep it closed!

6. Pawns really annoy me (stonewall player) so put the pawns on light sqaures so my light sqaure bishops cant go anywhere.

7. Trade off light sqaure bishops!

8. Push your h pawn up one sqaure (if you castled kingside) so his rook lift (if he does do a rook lift) does not affect you as much.

 9. Castle queenside!

those are some of the things that annoy me. hope this helps and good luck on your games.

Without playing against it recently (I may have a long time ago but I don't remember), my initial gut reaction is to try to move Black's King's Knight to f6 and then f7 sometime in the opening. You can break the wall down by attacking the pawn at e3. Also, perhaps a gambit with c5 will do the trick, too. Or both together!

I play the stonewall as white, and what annoys me most is Black's light-squared bishop coming out to f5.....  I love playing the Stonewall when Black moves e6 and blocks that bishop in.  There is a Stonewall group on here somewhere.  I remember playing someone who was rated about 400 point or more higher than me, and I did my usual Stonewall, and then he said he was an expert in that and did I want to join his Stonewall Group...that kind of took the wind out of me.  I lost.

It depends on what you play and which version of the Stonewalk he plays.

Evidently you don't play the KID or any other fiancheto defense or else you would be fine.

If he plays f4 first, play ...Bg4 at the earliest opportunity. An interesting line is 1.f4 d6!? 2.Nf3 Bg4, and now if he does anything other than advance his e-pawn, you capture on f3. If he plays 3.e3, you play 3...e5!? If he plays 3.e4 (best), then you get an interesting game with no stonewalls around.

If he plays d4 first, play ...Bf5 at the earliest opportunity.

Erm, you really shouldn't compare the Stonewall to the Colle.

There are GMs that play the Colle.

And that automatically means that white gets an advantage with it?

If he plays f4 first try out the From gambit!!!

I, too, hate the Stonewall. When I went to a tournament recently, the only game I lost was to the Stonewall Attack. I just want to thank val08 for posting this (I was about to post the exact same topic myself).

Ps.: The Colle is not comparable to the Stonewall, Estragon. 

I prefer this line with black.