Featured is an instructive freestyle chess game between Leon Luke Mendonca and Ian Nepomniachtchi from round 3 of the Grenke Chess Festival 2025. From start position #9 there are no unprotected pawns, and oddball bishops that will need to move to be productive. Moreover castling towards the c-file is unlikely since 4 pieces must first be moved. No castles is more likely than castles at all with this setup. After only 9 moves we see a structure similar to the Stonewall Dutch, however with the inclusion of h5 it’s more like a Stonewall Dutch gone wrong! Mendonca’s nearly perfect play shows us how one can exploit the weaknesses black has created on the e5/g5/f4 squares. Time controls for this game are 90 minutes each with a 30-second increment throughout.
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1. d4 d5 2. Nd3 Nd6 3. e3 a5 4. a4 f6 5. b3 Bf7 6. h4 h5 7. Bc3 Nd7 8. Nd2 c6 9. Bf3 f5 10. Be2 Ne4 11. Nf3 Bc7 12. Bb2 Rh6 13. Nf4 Qb8 14. Rh3 O-O-O 15. c4 dxc4 16. bxc4 Nb6 17. Rc1 Bxf4 18. exf4 Qxf4 19. Rc2 Nd7 20. Bc1 Qc7 21. Bxh6 gxh6 22. d5 Rg8 23. Nd4 Qf4 24. Rf3 Qxh4 25. dxc6 bxc6 26. Nxc6 Rg6 27. Qh8+ Bg8 28. Ne5 Rg5 29. Nxd7 Kxd7 30. Qe5 Nd6 31. c5 Qe4 32. Qc3 Nc4 33. c6+ Kc7 34. Bxc4 Bxc4 35. Qxa5+ Kxc6 36. Rxc4+