The Stonewall Attack

By Andrew Soltis

A completely revised 2nd edition of this classic guide to the Stonewall attack, popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries but fallen out of favor. Fully understood, it is an excellent... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0875681654
• ISBN13: 9780875681658
• Release Date: January 1993
• Publisher: Chess Digest, Inc.
• Length: 158 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.

Customer Reviews

An Impressive Overview of one of the most Aggressive and Forceful Attacks

The Stonewall Attack is a fierce and extremely aggressive attack with white playing d4 and an eventual f4. My understanding has always been that it is not played at the GM level since it ultimately can be refuted; however, at most tournaments, if played correctly this attack is enough to overwhelm many expert players. The Stonewall attack has a few key benefits that Soltis outlines. Primarily, it opens rapidly and attacks quickly before black really has an ability to fully develop his position. A pawn at f4 creates significant issues that if not dealt with immediately by black can create significant problems even for high level players. The added benefit to this is that few players play f4 and this it takes many good players out of their opening book quickly leaving them in uncomfortable positions. The downside is that the attack, if fended off adequately, can leave white with some poor positional play toward the middle and end game, particularity a backward pawn on e3. Soltis is the only author to dedicate an entire book to this opening and he does a very fine job. His explanation of strategy fully explains the mindset behind the positions and attack, and also will leave your imagination pondering many new combinational attacks and sacrifices that you perhaps never thought of as strong. The evidence is in many games Soltis shows where a well played Stonewall Attack completely demoralized black's ability to counter attack or even lead to quick mating combinations. I have witnessed master players that have fallen prey to this forceful attack (and Soltis shows games when even GMs have been crushed by the Stonewall). I highly recommend this book to any player seeking to add a very aggressive and often effective opening to their repertoire.

Well covered on hard to find opening.

Review of 1987 edition: Soltis examines the Stonewall in five chapters in 134 pages. 1.Matter of the move order. 2. Strategies 3. Theoretically Best Defense. 4. Traditional defense. 5. Black Fianchettoes. & 8 Illustative Games with text notes which are great for understanding the ideas behind the moves. Also a brief section on the Colle which Soltis recommends as a necessary companion opening to the stonewall, ((or optional early white dxc5 hanging on to the extra pawn(however soltis only goes to 10 moves on 5. dxc5 variation and I wish a full game would have been added in this unsual line.)). A comprehensive move order Index is included in the front which should give greatly needed help to the format. It took awhile to get use to his format but after a few days of reading the mainline format interposed with multiple sub-variations; although sometimes hard to follow, should be easier to review particular sequences. The main drawback with this book was it seemed to overlap itself way to much with exact same move order in different sections.(However in some ways this might be good review.) Also if the book would have included some potential endgame theory or more mating attack examples coming from the stonewall this book would of been top class. However, the main mating attacks are present and opening and middlegame are exhaustive covering every variation nearly possible. Sometimes Soltis presents GM game lines he feels are inferior for white and gives "better" lines. This is probably good, but can also add to confusing you if your just looking for the "best moves". I've found the explanations for moves very good, even going as far as showing you what bad things will happen if you make the incorrect move. Which alot of opening books just leave out, assuming you can see the problem with a move. This book even has a little bit of history on the stonewall and gives example games, 90% of them I felt were effective examples. I'm uscf 1600, paid $8 for this book plus shipping and am very happy with the book based on its small 134 page count. After reading this book you will definitely know most of the lines up to the middlegame and get a generally idea of your mating attacks, and ideas on when you should switch over to a queenside attack as well as understand the importance of the Knight outposts and C and G files which seem to become a theme in the stonewall. Also explains options when to push the e3 pawn. As well as know which squares are common for white to attack. The explanation of letting black take the Bd3 in chapter 3 was very interesting. Also deveopment of the Knight to Nh3. Chapter five lacked a little in comparision to chap 3 & 4, this probably wasn't due to Soltis, only the nature of the play. Leaving less traps and attacks for white appearing seemingly less deep. However Soltis explains the good and the bad of blacks fianchetto and its up to white to "prove" the stonewall as black appears to be in a defensive stance. I think if