The 1992 US Open was held in Dearborn, Michigann, a suburb of Detroit. The tournament was won by GM Gregory Kaidanov ahead of John Fedorowicz, Benjamin Finegold, Ray Stone and David J Strauss who were tied for second.
The following entertaining game was played in that event and it features a mismatch where a 1775 rated player confidently launched an attack against his 2325 rated opponent, the 78-year old GM Arnold Denker.
The opening was the Stonewall Attack, one of those “systems” that was first advocated by Al Horowitz and Fred Reinfeld back in 1971 in their book How to Think Ahead in Chess: The Methods and Techniques of Planning Your Entire Game.
The book deals with one opening for white, the Stonewall Attack, and for black the Sicilian Dragon against 1.e4 and Lasker’s Defense against the Queen’s Gambit.
The Dragon has a whole lot more theory than ever presented in the book, but Lasker’s Defense is a solid and fairly easy way to meet 1.d4.
The Stonewall Attack seems simple enough, but for some reason when you play it black never seems to roll over and died like the examples in the book.
Later on, in 1993, Andrew Soltis published The Stonewall Attack in which he proclaimed it to be, “one of the simplest to play and yet it is one of the rarest to be found in tournaments…at least on the master level.”
The problem is that in real life your opponents do not obligingly fall in with your plans. You cannot play the Stonewall by simply posting your pawns on c3, d4, e3, and f4 and then deploying your pieces in typical Stonewall fashion with Bd3, Nf3-e5, Nbd2, Qe2 or Qf3, O-O, etc. Even in the Stonewall you have to pay attention to your opponent’s plans and act accordingly.
in the following game the average player got a reasonably good position, but then like we average players do, he managed to lose. At any level though a 550 point rating difference is just too much to overcome.
[Event “US Open, Dearborn”]
[Site “”]
[Date “1992.08.02”]
[Round “”]
[White “Azziem Mohammed”]
[Black “Arnold Denker”]
[Result “0-1”]
[ECO “D00”]
[WhiteElo “1775”]
[BlackElo “2325”]
[Annotator “Stockfish 16”]
[PlyCount “63”]
[EventDate “1992.08.02”]
{Stonewall Attack} 1. d4 Nf6 2. e3 d5 3. Bd3 e6 (3… Nc6 4. f4 {4.c3 to
prevent …Nb5 would allow 4…e5!} Bg4 (4… Nb4 5. Nf3 {English Master F.J.
Lee and Jackson W. Showalter preferred 5.Bd2 with the idea of clearing the
c-file for the R at c1 and prepare b2-b4 which restricts black’s main break …
c5.} Nxd3+ 6. cxd3 {is an entirely different gane that what white expects when
he plays the Stonewall.}) 5. Nf3 Nb4 {is dead level. There is little merit to
having the B on g4 because after Nbd2 and h3 white has a good position.} 6.
Nbd2 e6 7. O-O a5 {Komodo 8 64-bit: 1)} 8. a3 Nxd3 9. cxd3 {
Tartajubow-opponent, Correspondence, 2015. The game was eventually drawn.}) 4.
Nd2 {A precaution against the possibility of …Ne4} (4. f4 Ne4 5. Bxe4 (5. Nf3
c5 6. c3 Nc6 7. Nbd2 f5 {and this is not what white is looking for when he
plays the Stonewall.}) 5… dxe4 {and white’s plans have been rendered
impossible.}) 4… Nbd7 5. f4 c5 6. c3 b6 (6… Bd6 7. Qe2 b6 8. Ngf3 Bb7 9.
Ne5 Ne4 10. Nxe4 dxe4 11. Bb5 Bxe5 12. dxe5 {is equal. Sharbaf,M (2362)
-Lavasani,J (2032) Dubai UAE 2006, Note that white did not get the K-side
attack as is generally expected when the Stoewall is played.}) (6… a6 7. Ngf3
Be7 8. O-O b5 9. Ne5 Bb7 10. Ndf3 h6 11. f5 exf5 12. Bxf5 O-O 13. Bd2 {Neither
side can claim any advanrage. Campagnolo,F (1714) -Guara Neto,A (2060)
Florianopolis BRA 2022}) 7. Qf3 (7. Ngf3 Bb7 8. O-O c4 9. Bc2 Be7 10. Ne5 O-O {
This is the typical setup that white expects to reach when playing the
Stonewall.} 11. Rf3 Ne8 {This should have lost at once!} 12. Rh3 (12. Bxh7+ {
Unlike in the game, this scores the point.} Kh8 (12… Kxh7 13. Rh3+ Kg8 14.
Qh5 Bh4 15. Rxh4 Qxh4 16. Qxh4 {and white is winning.}) 13. Rh3 Nef6 14. Qc2 g6
15. Bxg6+ Kg8 16. Rg3 {wins for white.}) 12… f5 13. Ndf3 b5 14. Nxd7 Qxd7 15.
Ne5 {White has only slightly better chances. Sushko,V-Kuznetsov,V Kiev 2004})
7… Bb7 8. Ne2 {In spite of all the glowing promises of those advocating the
Stownwall Attack, white has no real prospects of overwhelming blac’s solid
defensive setyp.} (8. g4 {looks good, but it doesn’t lead toi anything.} g6 9.
g5 Nh5) (8. Nh3 h6 9. g4 Bd6 10. g5 hxg5 11. Nxg5 Qe7 {followed by …O-O-O is
slightly in black’s favor.}) 8… Be7 9. Bc2 {Harmless and rather pointless.} (
9. g4 {was worth a try, but after} h6 10. h4 h5 11. g5 Ng4 12. Ng3 g6 {This
closed position is completely equal.}) 9… Rc8 10. O-O Rc7 11. g4 {[%mdl 32]}
Qa8 {A pecular move. The point seems to be to make …Ne4 possible in the
event of 12.g5} 12. Ng3 {Now …Ne4 loses a P.} (12. g5 Ne4 13. Nxe4 dxe4 14.
Qh3 O-O 15. Ng3 {favors black after} f5 16. gxf6 Rxf6 17. Qg2 Rg6 {The e-Pawn
is safe and black is better.}) 12… O-O 13. g5 Ne8 {In this position white
has equality, but no more. On his next move he confidently sacrifices a B, but
unfortunately it’s unsound. There is no really promising continuation for
white, so he has to just keep amneuverubg and wait. A switch to the Komodo
Human engine did not reveal anything special…only maneuvering…} 14. Bxh7+ {
[%mdl 8192] Unsound…it’s only good if black does not accept it.} Kxh7 $19 (
14… Kh8 15. Bd3 {Now the threat of Qh5+ and mate on h7 is very real, so…} (
15. Qh5 {This looks lkogical, but it’s nit quite good enough to force the win.}
Ndf6 16. gxf6 Nxf6 17. Qe5 Ne8 18. Nf3 Kxh7 19. Qh5+ Kg8 20. Ng5 Bxg5 21. fxg5
Qd8 22. Rf4 g6 23. Qh6 f6 {The defense has succeeded and the chances are equal.
}) 15… g6 16. h4 Nd6 17. h5 {with a cery dangerous attack.}) 15. Qh5+ Kg8 16.
Nf3 g6 17. Qh6 Ng7 18. Ne5 Nxe5 19. fxe5 {Now id white can get in Rf4 he will
have a winning attack.} Qd8 (19… a6 {A pass to show white’s threat.} 20. Rf4
Bxg5 (20… Nf5 21. Nxf5 gxf5 22. Rh4 {mate next move.}) 21. Qxg5 Qd8 22. Qh6 {
with a decisicve advantage.}) 20. Rf6 Re8 21. Bd2 Bf8 22. Qh3 Ba6 {This
prevents white from getting his other R into play… not that Raf1 would
actually have caused black any serious problems.} (22… a6 23. Raf1 Bc6 24.
R1f4 Nf5 25. Nxf5 exf5 26. Rh4 Bg7 27. Rh7 Re6 28. Qh4 Qf8 {White is a piece
down anf there is no way to continue his attack.}) 23. a4 Bd3 24. e4 Bxe4 25.
Rf4 Nf5 {White is now quite lsot.} 26. Rxe4 (26. Nxf5 Bxf5 {anf there is no
way white can get the R to the h-file.}) 26… Nxg3 (26… dxe4 {wins, but it
could get a bit tricky.} 27. Nxe4 Bg7 28. Nf6+ Bxf6 29. gxf6 cxd4 {This P has
a great future!} 30. Rf1 dxc3 31. Rxf5 (31. Bxc3 Rxc3 32. bxc3 Qd2 {Prevents
the Q from reaching h6.}) 31… cxd2 32. Qh6 d1=Q+ 33. Kg2 Qg4+ 34. Kf2 Rc2+ {
mates}) 27. hxg3 (27. Rh4 {was his only chance.} Nh5 28. Rxh5 gxh5 29. Qxh5 {
vut even here there is no attack and so after} cxd4 30. Rf1 dxc3 31. bxc3 Bc5+
32. Kh1 d4 33. g6 fxg6 34. Qxg6+ Rg7 {the game is over.}) 27… dxe4 28. Be3
cxd4 29. cxd4 Rc4 30. Rd1 (30. Rf1 Rxd4 31. Bxd4 Qxd4+ 32. Kh1 Qxe5 {is
hopeless for white.}) 30… Bg7 31. Kg2 Rc2+ 32. Bf2 {Black resigned. 32…e3
is next.} 0-1
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