In 1893 Harry Nelson Pillsbury had notable success with the Stonewall Attack during the two New York tournaments of that year, venturing the opening on six occasions and winning all six.

Other prominent players to have used the opening included Lasker, Capablanca, Alekhine, Chigorin, Rubinstein, Tarrasch, Reti, Tartakower, Maroczy and Breyer.

The most notable modern day practitioner is American IM Yaacov Norowitz who has played the opening extensively in online blitz with considerable success.

The Stonewall set-up, when employed by Black, remains one of the main options within the Dutch Defence and has been used by Magnus Carlsen to defeat Viswanathan Anand and Fabiano Caruana.

While such primitive tactics cannot be expected to succeed against experienced chess players, the illustrative games below demonstrate that in the Stonewall's heyday White was often able to develop a dangerous initiative even against master level opposition.