Black vs Stonewall

What really is the plan for black against the Stonewall? Usually I try to trade the light-squared bishop as early as I can with ...b6 and ...Ba6 but in this game, the order of moves denied me that plan.

here was just an illusion, that by sacing knight, You may get to his king,while he slowly captured e5 knight, that was important for blocking king to escape, and after that+ f6 knight protection made him damageless

but Nice Game!

As early as practical possible to play f6 followed by e5 in order to break up the opponents pawncenter. The same goes for white against black stonewall (f3 and e4). But the stonewalls players have methods to use against these pawn moves. But this strategy is in my opinion the hardest challenge for the stonewall players.

Just like you, I try to exchange the light squared bishop. Fianchettoing your Bishop's, usually on both sides and then short castling can prevent the kingside attack, and then you can try your best to exchange their light squared bishop or kingside knight with your knight. Other than that, I once played 1. d4 d5 2. e3 Nf6 3. f4 Bf5 4. Nf3 e6 5. Bd3 Bd3 and then I exchanged light Bishops. This might be a way.

I don't think there was way to avoid it, all his passivly agressive defence was like a trap, only way was to stay passive too till some lucky moment

@Bjarne-Peder I have tried that a few times but it just led to more open lines for white to attack. It's weird because sometimes I play the Stonewall myself as black but it's never given me great results. They always play g4 to attack my structure as white and it always works for them, whereas for me, ...g5 is only a distant dream.

@Detective_on_duty The problem is, as a Nf6 player, it's very difficult to predict whether they will play the Stonewall (usually my pawn ends up on e6 before I can develop my bishop, or my bishop is already on the a3-f8 diagonal).

In general, I find it very difficult facing kingside attacks in these structures as black. Even when exchanging pieces, white sometimes mates me with only a Q+R left, or my queenside pawns just get hoovered up when I divert all my pieces to the defence.

@TheSquare It's alright man, I searched it up on YouTube later, didn't find much. I just won once with the line I gave. If I was not in school and doing some job , I could have definitely donated Gothamchess in superchat and asked him about it lmao. Max to max is that you can do a study yourself ( and maybe for the sake of people like us, make it public)

I like b6 instead of d5. It keeps the position open. This opening of white is saying right away I am going to check mate you.