The Tarrasch Defense is considered by some to be
one of Black's most powerful defenses in the queen pawn
openings. The Tarrasch is a variation of the
Queen's Gambit Declined. The normal opening
moves are (ECO D32):
1. d4 d5
2. c4 e6
3. Nc3 c5
The Tarrasch Defense is dangerous for begining and intermediate
players because Black is often left with an isolated
d pawn; most positional players avoid this opening.
However, tactician grandmasters like Gary Kasparov,
Paul Keres, and Boris Spassky have used the Tarrasch with success.
Eric Schiller's book A Complete Defense to Queen Pawn Openings
recommends and features the Tarrasch as Black's best chance in the
Queen's Gambit.
Recently the Tarrasch has become trendy. Varuzhan Akobian defeated
grandmaster Alexander Wojtkiewicz, earning his first grandmaster norm
with this opening at an elite round-robin invitational in San Francisco
in 2002. The game went as follows (White = Wojo, Black = Akobian)
1. Nf3 e6
2. c4 d5
3. d4 c5
4. cd ed
5. g3 Nc6
6. Bg2 Nf6
7. 0-0 Be7
8. Nc3 0-0
9. b3 Ne4
10. Bb2 Bf6
11. Ne4 de
12. Nd2 Bg4
13. h3 Bh5
14. Ne4 Bd4
15. Bd4 cd
16. Rc1 Qe7
17. Re1 Rac8
18. Qd2 Rfd8
19. Nc5 Bg6
20. b4 b6
21. Na6 Ne5
22. Rc8 Rc8
23. f4 Nc4
24. Qd4 Ne3
25. Bf3 f6
26. Qb2 Nc2
27. Rd1 Qe3
28. Kh1 Qf2
29. Qb3 Bf7
30. Qd3 Ne3
31. Qd7 Rf8
32. Rg1 Nf1
33. Qg4 Qh2 #
(This game appears in a column by
Robert Byrne in the
20 October 2002
New York Times.)
This defense is named after Grandmaster Siegbert Tarrasch.
I just read in Bruce Pandolfini's book Chess Openings:
Traps and Zaps that he attributes a line of play in the
Ruy Lopez to Tarrasch. He says the
following moves are the Tarrasch defense
(ECO C80):
1. e4 e5
2. Nf3 Nc6
3. Bb5 a6
4. Ba4 Nf6
5. O-O Nxe4
I've never heard of the Tarrasch defense being anything
other than the aforementioned defense to the Queen's Gambit, but
I don't get out much. Further research supports that this
opening line, which
is also called the
Open defense in
the Ruy Lopez, was
supported by
Siegbert Tarrasch.