August '00 Update
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I have received many requests concerning the Tarrasch Defence and in particular those aggressive variations such as the Hennig-Schara Gambit. Accordingly I have devoted this August update to adding a new Tarrasch section, and I am concentrating here on some of the most popular lines. In due course I will also add coverage of the Main Line Tarrasch. Best wishes Ruslan Scherbakov |
Marshall Gambit
4 cxd5 exd5 5 e4
            
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5 e4 and 5 dxc5 are the most direct attempts to refute the Tarrasch Defence. Although theory is sceptical about White's chances, Black needs to play very accurately in order to parry White's ideas.
RS266 At first glance the Marshall Gambit does not look dangerous for Black, but as this game shows he has to be rather careful if he is to counter White's ideas successfully.
Tarrasch Gambit
4 cxd5 exd5 5 dxc5
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RS267 In the main line 5...d4 6 Na4 b5! 7 cxb6 axb6 it becomes a real gambit. Theory suggests Black has very good compensation for the pawn, and this game is a good example of the dangers White may have to face.
RS268 Here White moves his Knight to the centre of the board, rather than the edge. This allows Black to restore the material balance but as compensation White tries to gain other advantages. The idea is not without poison, but does not seem to be a serious attempt to fight for the advantage.
Hennig-Schara Gambit
1 d4 d5 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3 c5 4 cxd5 cxd4
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Thanks to a rather witty pawn sacrifice, Black gains an advantage in development and takes the initiative. However both theory and practice seem to prove that White has the better chances. Nevertheless in many lines very sharp positions can arise and White needs to know exactly what to do.
RS257 The set-up White chooses allows Black to achieve good compensation for the pawn, according to theory. Here a logical move which transformed the game into an ending with an extra pawn for White and ruined Black's pawn structure turned out to be a big mistake. By sacrificing a whole rook Black forced the White King to go on a very long trip. To avoid mate White had to give up a lot of material, but this did not make his life any easier. It would have been a brilliant game... if only Black had been able to keep his cool till the end of time trouble.
RS258 The line where White postpones castling and develops his Q-side first may give him an advantage, but tournament practice has not proved this. Perhaps this is because the position is complicated, and Black has a lot of active pieces and interesting ideas. In the featured game it was White who introduced a new idea, but then he missed an excellent move for Black after which his King was forced to go for a long walk. He wandered deep into the Black camp and was eventually checkmated on the 8th rank!
RS259 After capturing the pawn on d5 White has two reasonable queen retreats. Here we consider Qb3, which looks rather promising.
RS260 The queen retreat to d1, followed by the pawn sacrifice b2-b4 is one of White's most promising attempts to gain the advantage. In this deep and complex line, here White was smashed conclusively, but I am sure thorough analysis would prove her advantage.
Swedish Variation
4 cxd5 exd5 5 Nf3 Nc6 6 g3 c4
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This variation was introduced and developed by famous Swedish players Gideon Stahlberg, Erik Lundin and Goesta Stoltz. Black avoids an isolated d-pawn and his pieces can come into play quickly by ...Bb4 and ...Nge7, after which Black is not worried about Bg5 in contrast to those lines where the knight is developed to f6. However the advance ...c5-c4 unties White's hands in the centre and increases the potential of the d-pawn very much.
Plans connected with Nf3-e5 and e2-e4 promise a small but undoubted advantage.
RS261 White offers a pawn sacrifice, hoping to win the pawn back later in a more favourable situation. However, although he manages to do that after some rather interesting complications, it seems that Black can still solve his problems in this line.
RS262 The plan suggested by Theo van Scheltinga fifty years ago is still really dangerous for Black. Moreover his play in the opening is possibly an improvement on modern theory. An interesting and instructive game.
RS263 The early 9. ..dxe4 was considered to be too risky after this game, where Samuel Reshevsky introduced a new set-up and smashed one of the pioneers of the variation in convincing fashion.
RS264 One of the drawbacks of the Swedish variation is that White is quite often able to play for a win without risk, while Black has to defend very precisely to get half a point. Here he fails to achieve this.
RS265 This game shows an improvement which gives White real winning chances right from the opening.
Tarrasch- Introduction
1 d4 d5 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3 c5
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This defence (or, rather, counter attack) became famous in 1887-1889 when Siegbert Tarrasch used it in a couple of games. He considered 3...c5 to be the only move which could help Black to achieve active counterplay. In doing so he allows the isolation of his d-pawn after which his minor pieces can be developed much more actively than in the "orthodox" systems, especially the bishop on c8 and the knight on b8.
After years of success with the move 3. ..c5, many respected players of that time agreed with Tarrasch (who considered the modest 4 e3 to be the best reply to his invention) that the isolated d-pawn is not a weakness.
However a new set-up which was introduced by Carl Schlechter in Prague 1908 and then developed by Akiba Rubinstein and Richard Reti struck a severe blow to the Tarrasch Defence. It was connected with a fianchetto of the White Bishop by g2-g3 and Bf1-g2 which exerts additional pressure on the isolated pawn as well as reducing Black's active possibilities on the kingside. After numerous examples of Black losing the game without making any visible mistake, but rather just because the defects of his pawn structure eventually told due to White's not only strong but accurate play, the defence lost its popularity. Tarrasch himself made a lot of effort to prove that comfortable development should compensate for the isolated d-pawn, but while he improved some lines, tournament statistics relentlessly verified Black's failures and the defence began disappearing from practice.
A long time has passed and a lot of variations have been reappraised. Nowadays the Tarrasch Defence is still not very popular in spite of it being in the repertoire of Garry Kasparov in the first half of 1980's when he used it on his way to the World Title. The problem is still the same - Black should maintain the initiative with high creativity and precision but just one mistake may force him to switch to an unpleasant defence. This is obviously not to everyone's taste. However if the weapon is well-polished it may work very well- there are lots of lines where White's simple and accurate play leads nowhere. He should not only be generally well prepared but demonstrate something more than official theoretical advice in order to prove an advantage.
Just like in almost every opening…