The Torre Attack is a
chess opening
A chess opening or simply an opening is the initial stage of a chess game. It usually consists of established theory; the other phases are the middlegame and the endgame. Many opening sequences have standard names such as the " Sicilian Defens ...
characterized by the moves:
:1.
d4 Nf6
:2.
Nf3 e6
:3.
Bg5 (''
ECO'' code A46)
or the Tartakower Variation in the
Queen's Pawn Game (''ECO'' code D03):
:2...
d5
:3.
Bg5
or the Torre Attack in the
East Indian Defence (''ECO'' code A48):
:2...
g6
:3.
Bg5
or the Torre Attack in the
Indian Defence (''ECO'' code A47):
:2...
b6
:3.
Bg5
Description
A common position for White's opening attack on Black's will be with the light-squared bishop at d3 and the dark-squared bishop at g5, and the knights at d2 and f3:
White pursues quick and harmonious development, will bolster his d4-pawn by c2–c3, then often enforces e2–e4 to obtain attacking chances on the kingside as the pins the f6-knight. If White plays an early c4, the opening will transpose to a number of more common
queen pawn openings, such as the
Queen's Gambit
The Queen's Gambit is the chess opening that starts with the moves:
:1. d4 d5
:2. c4
It is one of the oldest openings and is still commonly played today. It is traditionally described as a '' gambit'' because White appears to sacrifice the ...
or one of the various
Indian defences.
The opening is named after the Mexican grandmaster
, who beat former World Champion
Emanuel Lasker
Emanuel Lasker (; December 24, 1868 – January 11, 1941) was a German chess player, mathematician, and philosopher who was World Chess Champion for 27 years, from 1894 to 1921, the longest reign of any officially recognised World Chess Champ ...
with it. The variation was also employed by
Savielly Tartakower
Savielly Tartakower (also known as ''Xavier'' or ''Ksawery'' ''Tartakower'', less often ''Tartacover'' or ''Tartakover''; 21 February 1887 – 4 February 1956) was a Polish and French chess player. He was awarded the title of International Grand ...
,
Boris Spassky
Boris Vasilievich Spassky ( rus, Бори́с Васи́льевич Спа́сский, Borís Vasíl'yevich Spásskiy; born January 30, 1937) is a Russian chess grandmaster who was the tenth World Chess Champion, holding the title from 196 ...
, and
Tigran Petrosian
Tigran Vartanovich Petrosian (, ; 17 June 1929 – 13 August 1984) was a Soviet-Armenian chess grandmaster, and World Chess Champion from 1963 to 1969. He was nicknamed "Iron Tigran" due to his almost-impenetrable defensive playing style, ...
early in his career. Other noted top-level exponents include
Alexey Dreev
Alexey Sergeyevich Dreev (, also transliterated as Aleksey or Alexei; born 30 January 1969) is a Russian chess player. He was awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE in 1989.
Career
While being a promising young chess talent, he was for a period ...
,
Pentala Harikrishna
Pentala Harikrishna (born 10 May 1986) is an Indian chess grandmaster. He became the youngest grandmaster from India after attaining the title in 2001, a record now held by Gukesh D. He was Commonwealth Champion in 2001, World Junio ...
,
Krishnan Sasikiran
Krishnan Sasikiran (Tamil: கிருஷ்ணன் சசிகிரண்; born 7 January 1981) is an Indian chess grandmaster.
He was one of Viswanathan Anand's seconds in the World Chess Championship 2013.
Chess career
Born in Madra ...
and
Jan Timman.
The Torre Attack is rarely met in modern top-flight play as a "Go-to or Primary" system, and statistics suggest that it is not particularly advantageous for White. Due to its calm nature and relative lack of theory, however, it is popular at club level, giving White chances to seize a middlegame initiative. In recent years it has also been used against Black's kingside fianchetto pawn structure.
Torre Attack in the East Indian Defence (''ECO'' A48)
A variation of
East Indian Defence, after 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.Bg5, is often also called Torre Attack. After 3...Bg7, White usually plays 4.Nbd2 but can also play 4.c3. After 4.Nbd2, common lines include 4...0-0 5.c3 and 4...d5 5.e3 0-0.
Example game
Loek Van Wely
Loek van Wely (born 7 October 1972) is a Dutch chess player and politician. He was awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE in 1993, and was rated among the world's top ten in 2001 with a rating of 2714. In March 2019, he was elected to the Dutch ...
vs.
Peter Leko
Peter Leko ( hu, Lékó Péter; born September 8, 1979) is a Hungarian chess player and commentator. He became the world's youngest grandmaster in 1994. He narrowly missed winning the Classical World Chess Championship 2004: the match was dra ...
, 1996
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.Bg5 Bg7 4.Nbd2 0-0 5.c3 d6 6.e4 c5 7.dxc5 dxc5 8.Bc4 Nc6 9.0-0 Qc7 10.Qe2 h6 11.Bh4 Nh5 12.Rfe1 Ne5 13.Nxe5 Bxe5 14.g3 Bh8 15.f4 Ng7 16.Qf3 Be6 17.Rad1 Rad8 18.Bxe6 Nxe6 19.f5 g5 20.fxe6 gxh4 21.Qg4 Bg7 22.Qxh4 c4 23.Kg2 fxe6 24.Qg4 Rf6 25.Nf3 Rdf8 26.Nd4 h5 27.Qxh5 Rf2 28.Kh3 Qe5 29.Qxe5 Bxe5 30.Nxe6 R8f6 31.Rd8 Kf7 32.Ng5 Kg7 33.Rd7 Rh6 34.Kg4 Bf6 35.Ne6 Kf7 36.Nf4 Rh8 37.h4 Rg8 38.Kh3 Be5 39.Rd5 Bxf4 40.Rf5 Ke6 41.Rxf4 Rxb2 42.h5 b5 43.Rg4 Rxg4 44.Kxg4 Rxa2 45.h6 Rh2 46.Kg5 Ke5 47.g4 a5 48.Rb1 Kxe4 49.Rxb5 a4 50.Ra5 Kd3 51.Kg6 a3 52.h7 e5 53.Rxe5 Rxh7 54.Kxh7 Kxc3 55.Ra5 Kb2 56.g5 a2 57.g6 a1=Q 58.Rxa1 Kxa1 59.g7 c3 60.g8=Q c2
See also
*
Trompowsky Attack · another set of openings with White utilizing d4 and Bg5 attacking Black's Nf6, which may sometimes transpose to a Torre Attack
*
List of chess openings
This is a list of chess openings, organized by the '' Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings'' () code. In 1966, Chess Informant categorized the chess openings into five broad areas ("A" through "E"), with each of those broken down into one hundred subc ...
*
List of chess openings named after people
References
Further reading
*
*
*
Chess openings
{{chess-opening-stub