The Stonewall: Lecture by GM Ben Finegold

GM Ben Finegold lectures on the Stonewall. This video was recorded on November 18th, 2024 in Roswell, Georgia.

Thank you to Anonymous for sponsoring this lecture.

03:37 Preston Ware vs. Miksa Weiss, Vienna 1882
20:33 Ritvars Reimanis vs. Alexander Onischuk, PRO Chess League 2018
28:53Evgeny Gleizerov vs. Vasilij Gagarin, Rilton Cup 2008
35:26 Grigoriy Oparin vs. Emily Nguyen, US Collegiate Rapid 2020

#benfinegold #chess #Stonewall

[DonZauker]

This opening prevents White from ever playing F3. So you know it's good.

[thekooldewd]

This lecture got me stoned. Thanks, anonymous!

[IsaacBenevides]

Great lecture as always Mr. Grandmaster

[askthepizzaguy]

Props to the patron sponsoring these lectures.

[elliswalker]

I love all of the lectures by Ben so much

[ykonstant]

A great opening innovation by Howard Stonewall.

[duesexistat]

“I’ve never even played King of the hill, so I don’t even get my own joke”. Classic.

[CrispyKorn]

The Stonewall is my favorite civil war opening

[LordBrozart]

I’m rated around 1200 and the Stonewall Attack is quite strong at this level. I’d recommend checking out the chessbrah Stonewall speedrun for some fun tactics and strategies, after watching this video.

[baoboumusic]

"There's only two things I hate in this world: openings that are intolerant of other openings, and the Stonewall Dutch." I predict Ben will say this :)

[Aphixx]

The whole list of various mates around 18:50 is great

[katzensprung]

Excellent lecture, thank you very much Ben!!

[mickgrundy]

Nice lecture ben cheers, learned a lot.

[inse]

Great video going over the stonewall attack, seems like some typical queens pawn ideas with Ne5, and even Greek gift and rook lift attacks on the kingside with Qh5 motifs as well in this opening. I can see keeping the center closed as the kingside attack commences with blacks pieces mainly on the queenside. Love your clear analysis and instruction! Thanks Ben!

[timbogan]

Great video about how to use an opening to get a good playable position.

[vidiveniviciDCLXVI]

Hello Ben, thanks for the video and the sponsor.

[vigilante]

I actually invented a Stonewall trap I call the *Finegold Trap* (for reasons that will become clear) and I've pulled many hundreds of times on Lichess by now. It's INCREDIBLY satisfying to pull off. It works as so:

(For notation, I'm assuming white playing Stonewall attack but I've also done many times as black).

This isn't a rote memorization trap. There's no set move order; and it works vs. a variety of black solid-passive-modest positions. This happens a LOT in blitz and bullet when people are just banging out easy moves.

(In bullet, I've had multiple >2000s stumble into the trap.)

Basically, whenever you're facing a passive/solid opponent who has played d5, hasn't played bishop f5, and is apparently going O-O, you keep your Stonewall structure static (don't break in the center), you preemptively keep his knight out of e4 with your pieces (with your queen knight, Bd3, and--if he's fianchettoing is queen bishop--also Qf3. )

Next step: Having kept the center locked and prevented his king knight from being a pest, you plant your own knight on e5. They usually won't take with a piece (and if they do, it's good for you.)

Black makes some random legal move, and then on your very next move--assuming he's castled by now--play g4 (I'm usually O-O myself by this point, but not always.) Note that this pawn storm is entirely safe--the center is locked solid, your pieces are aimed at the kingside and your king certainly isn't going to be attacked in the forseeable future unless black is prepared to sacrifice a significant amount of material.)

Now comes a pause and brief think. If he moves his knight off of f6, THAT IS A GOOD SIGN. Immediately bang out g5. The quicker, the better.

And now is the moment of truth. If he's moved his knight off of f6, there's a 90%+ chance that even though you played g5, he'll still play f6 to kick away your knight.

And that's the fatal move.

*Never play f6*

At this moment in time I usually click the "add time" button a few times to give my opponent more of a chance to think over what he just did.

Ignore your attacked knight, and greek gift sac your bishop.

King takes bishop, Qh5+. Kg8.

And now the comes moment of exquisite beauty and joy:

*g6* .

Pawn and Queen alone are now threatening to completely ruin black's day.

Sometimes it's unavoidable mate on the spot, while other times his rook and minor pieces are arranged such that he can survive by sacrificing some material back (but you always have an advantage, usually but not always a very large one.) I've had a few really interesting games where the black king does manage to run away to the queenside and black has enough material left to launch some Hail Mary dubious-but-dangerous attack of his own. Good times, good times.

I've done it probably 1/3-1/4 as often playing the Stonewall with black as I have with white because the extra tempo and psychological advantage of playing white means they are less likely to play passively.

If they don't play f6 (or f3), it's still a great position for you. Black is unable to open the center and his pieces are generally misplaced somewhere on the queenside. You can usually continue your kingside attack in one fashion or another with your pawns, bishop, queen, a rook lift, etc.

Your opponent will have queenside space, but this very rarely matters unless you wildly over-commit to some sort of stalled kingside attack. (So just be flexible enough to shift your attention to the center or to the queenside if he does manage to defend well on the kingside.)

Anyway, so that's the Stonewall: Finegold Trap

[jeffreyfisher]

Congressional hearing witnesses will come here for prep, but leave in disappointment.

[GregFrey-pdej]

Coming outta Stone mountain Georgia.. i play the stonewall alot. Via d4. E3. Then F4

[alicemystery]

i'll have to try the stonewall now