Trompowski attack

The Trompowski attack is an aggressive way to play for white in the queen’s gambit. This opening tries to put pressure as fast as possible in the opponent’s kingside and tries to get initiative fast.

The Trompowski attack used to be pretty popular in its days, but black has developed many weapons to fight the Trompowski. Even if black can fight it better, is still a good choice to play, and white can get really good positions out of this.

Also, black has to be prepared to face the Trompowski attack, because some key moves are not that obvious. This opening sure has some risk, the positions that may arise from this opening are very sharp and somewhat difficult to play.

Be aware that this is an opening that is not too popular these days, so there are high chances that your rivals don’t know the theory. You will surprise more than one guy with this awesome opening.

If you want to master the Trompowski attack, make sure you read this post until the end.

The mainlines of the Trompowski attack

To enter the Trompowski attack we will have to follow these moves:

And we are in the Trompowski attack. As you can see, we quickly attack the knight on f6 and put some pressure in the center.
In some lines, we will be able to exchange the bishop for the knight and weaken the d pawn. It’s also possible to play Bg5 even if the knight doesn’t come to f6 in the first move, for example, 1.d4 d5 2.Bg5 but is not considered as strong for white.

However, normally the Trompowski attack will usually lead to regular queen’s gambit lines.

So, as Nf6 is the most popular move in the starting position for black, we will stick with that move. There are many possible moves:

• e6
• d5
• Ne4

The first move e6 is one of the most popular for black, it doesn’t allow white to double the pawns in the f-file. It’s also preparing a d5 but is blocking the c8 bishop, that’s why in this line normally the knight will develop to b7.

The game may continue this way:

And in this variation we get a decent game with white.

There is another way to play, in case you want to play a much sharper line:

And you end up with a nice attacking position.

The second move d5 is one of the best for black, it’s known that this can be a lot more dangerous for white, and one has to be careful with c5. If you play correctly with black you can eve steal white the advantage, for example:

In a game that offers equal chances for both sides.

You can also play differently, if you don’t like this line:

And you end up in a very interesting position.

Finally, there is the interesting Ne4 by black, which is the most aggressive move to play in the black side. Many masters event think that this is the refutation of the Trompowski opening, which may be exaggerated or not, be the judge:

Where you get to play a somewhat weird Benoni in the Trompowski attack.

Another line:

\n\n[Event \"Moscow Tournament\"]\n[Site \"Moscow, RUS\"]\n[Date \"2008.08.18\"]\n[Round \"1\"]\n[White \"Morocevich, A\"]\n[Black \"Alekseev, E\"]\n[Result \"1-0\"]\n[WhiteElo \"2788\"]\n[BlackElo \"2708\"]\n[WhiteTitle \"GM\"]\n[BlackTitle \"GM\"]\n[Annotator \"Ezequiel Landaeta\"]\n\n1.d4 Nf6 2.Bg5 e6 3.Nd2 h6 4.Bh4 d5 {White has chosen one of the quietest ways to play with e6 and d5, very solid} 5.e3 c5 6.c3 Nc6 7.Ngf3 Bd6 8.Bd3 O-O 9.O-O e5 10.dxe5 Nxe5 11.Nxe5 Bxe5 12.f4 Bd6 {White will now seize the outpost on e5} 13.e4 c4 14.Be2 Qb6+ 15.Bf2 Bc5 16.e5 Ne4 17.Nxe4 dxe4 18.Bxc5 Qxc5+ 19.Qd4 Qxd4+ 20.cxd4 Be6 {In this endgame white has the clear advantage of a better pawn structure, and the pawns on d5 and e5 will fall} 21.f5 Bd5 22.Kf2 Rfc8 23.Rfc1 Rc6 24.a4 Rac8 25.Rc3 Rb6 26.Ra2 {White is defending for now, but black will lose eventually} Kf8 27.Ke3 Ke7 28.Bd1 Ra6 29.Ra1 b5 30.b4 bxa4 31.b5 Ra5 32.Rxa4 Rxa4 33.Bxa4 f6 {Not a good idea} 34.Bc2 fxe5 35.dxe5 Rc5 36.Ra3 Rxb5 37.Rxa7+ Kf8 38.e6 Bb7 39.e7+ Kxe7 40.Bxe4 1-0","pieceSymbols":"native","navigationBoard":"frame","withPlayButton":true,"withFlipButton":true,"withDownloadButton":true,"nboSquareSize":64,"nboCoordinateVisible":true,"nboTurnVisible":true,"nboColorset":"original","nboPieceset":"cburnett","nboAnimated":true,"nboMoveArrowVisible":true,"nboMoveArrowColor":"b","idoSquareSize":64,"idoCoordinateVisible":true,"idoTurnVisible":true,"idoColorset":"original","idoPieceset":"cburnett"}); } if (document.readyState === 'loading') { document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', renderThisPGN); } else { renderThisPGN(); } })();