[1] Like its 1.e4 counterpart, the Sicilian Defence, the Dutch is an aggressive and unbalancing opening, resulting in the lowest percentage of draws among the most common replies to 1.d4.

The Dutch has never been a main line against 1.d4 and is rarely seen today in high-level competition, although a number of top players, including Alexander Alekhine, Bent Larsen, Paul Morphy, Miguel Najdorf, Simon Williams, and Hikaru Nakamura[3] have used it with success.

The opening's attacking potential is shown in the Polish Immortal, in which Miguel Najdorf, using the Stonewall Variation, sacrificed all of his minor pieces to win by checkmate.

Of course, like any other opening in chess, there are countless variations and lines, but the above three are considered part of the main theory of the Dutch Defence.

The Stonewall Dutch enjoyed a resurgence of interest in the 1980s and 1990s, when leading grandmasters (GMs) Artur Yusupov, Sergey Dolmatov, Nigel Short, and Simen Agdestein helped develop the system where Black plays an earlier ...d5 and places his dark-squared bishop on d6.

[8] Simon Williams is one of the leading practitioners of the classical Dutch[citation needed] and wrote more than one book on the opening.

Examples: White has various more aggressive alternatives to the standard moves, including: Black sometimes starts with the move order 1...e6 to avoid these lines, although Black must then be ready to play the French Defence if White continues 2.e4, rendering the Dutch no longer an option.

The Staunton Gambit remains a good choice of opening for White in blitz tournaments where Black has little time to ponder the most accurate defence.