Trompowsky AttackA45
After 1.d4 Nf6 every Indian defence — the Nimzo, the King's Indian, the Grünfeld, the Benko — is waiting for 2.c4. The Trompowsky simply does not play it. 2.Bg5 hits the knight before Black has chosen a set-up, and White's whole game is about one trade: the bishop for that knight, played at the moment it leaves Black with doubled pawns or a queen out too early. Give up the bishop pair and White gets a lead in development, a centre that is easy to build with e4 or e3 and c4, and positions a Nimzo player has never studied. Two things go wrong. The b2-pawn is loose from move two, because the bishop that guarded it has left, so …Qb6 and …c5 have to be met rather than ignored. And the trade on f6 is a weapon, not a habit: taking when Black recaptures happily hands over the two bishops for nothing.
Played by
- Octávio Trompowsky — the Brazilian champion who played 2.Bg5 through the 1930s and 40s, long before anyone took it seriously
- Julian Hodgson — the English grandmaster who turned it into a complete repertoire in the 1990s and won with it against everybody
Model game
Adams – Georgiev, Las Palmas 1993
Next: d4 — yours
