Many thanks to John for commenting on my The Dutch Defence and Checkmate In Two Moves! post. John points out that after 1.d4 f5 2.Bg5 h6 3.Bh4 g5 4.Bg3 f4 5.e3, rather just loose a pawn (and get into a bad position) with 5… Nf6, black can try 5… h5. The idea is that now if 6.exf4 black can play 6… h4
bagging the bishop after all. When I saw John’s comment I got excited thinking that I now have another line to try against the 2.Bg5 system. However, unfortunately, a few minutes analysing with Fritz brought me back down to Earth! After 5… h5 white just plays 6.Be2
and in doing so continues to turn the screws on the black position. Maybe I’ve missed something but (sadly) it doesn’t look like it. Human beings have a talent for missing the obvious (or is it just me?) whereas Fritz has a talent for pointing out the obvious that I’ve missed.
Over the board, white’s 2.Bg5 approach is the one that causes me the most difficulties. I’m sorry to have to say this, because it’s not the kind of move (i.e. one that so exposed the bishop to attack) that looks like it ought to be problematic for black.
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