Getting out of the opening is one thing - but finding a strategic footing thereafter is another challenge entirely.
Middlegame melees are where most games are won and lost. Without a clear strategy out of the opening, this is where your game can get unstuck.Killer Dutch Middlegames, by FM Leopold Le Ruyet, is a booster course for Classical Dutch players. It is all about understanding the specific pawn structure and plans, ideas and schemes associated with this opening and how to use them to your advantage.
Dutch middlegames unpacked
The Dutch has a deserved reputation for being a highly dynamic opening, which means it is highly risky for both players. When playing it from either side, you need to understand what's bubbling under the surface.
Included in the course are chapters on:
✅ The light-square struggle;
✅ King-side blow-ups;
✅ Winning the queen-side grind;
✅ The vital e4 square;
✅ Common middlegame tactics;
✅ Final test.
Following on from GM Simon Williams'
The Killer Dutch Rebooted, this course smoothes the transition into the middlegame before explaining how you set yourself up for an advantageous endgame.
Through the use of, firstly, model games from different eras FM Le Ruyet aims to put the development of Dutch theory in a historical context by showing what has changed over time in the treatment of the key positions and what did not.
Move on from move orders!
FM Le Ruyet then unpacks the conclusions to bring you fully up-to-date with modern thinking.
This collection could be called The Mistakes of Others, since we’re expounding on what was missed as much as what was achieved in games of the classical, modern and computer era.
- FM Le Ruyet
In short, if you play The Dutch, particularly the classical variation, this targeted trainer will take you far beyond knowing a concrete move order.
FM Le Ruyet outlines at least two purposes for his strategy course:
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For the improving student: pupils can derive good and bad patterns of play and improve his/her judgment of those positions.
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For trainers: the diagrams and exercises here allow for several hours of pinpointed questioning of a student. Each chapter can fully serve a two to three hour-long intensive course to a level as high as 2200.
Knowing a concrete move order will only help you so far - get deep into the ideas that underpin The Dutch with Killer Dutch Middlegames.
