Meeting 1. d4 by Jacob Aagaard is quite good. It's a repertoire book on the Tarrasch and includes deviations from the main lines.
QGD: Tarrasch
Sort:
Wow, that's perfect, Jacob Aagaard has a reputation for putting good books out aswell. Thanks mate.
IS this book out of date? it was made in 2002.
By the way @tricklev are there any good books on the lasker/tartakower?
I dunno, I got most of my information from John Watson's Mastering The Chess Openings Volume 2, it covered the ideas, and regular themes in a very instructive manner, it wasn't really a theory tome, but for mild and logical variations as the Lasker one, it's hardly necessary to keep track of the latest move 16 novelty.
Mastering the chess openings volume 2 is a great book though, and I can recomend it to everyone interested in both strategical understanding, aswell as opening.
The Tarrasch Defense isn't played all that much at the GM level, so I suspect the theory hasn't changed so much. At an advanced level of defensive technique it is hard to make use of black's isolated pawns, but this isn't relevant at a sub-GM or perhaps sub IM level. A little supplementing with a database in the mainlines should be adequate for most.
Yea the theory doesn't really progress so quickly as in other, more popular openings. Besides, hardly anyone below master books up on the Tarrasch to a great degree. Usually people just get to the mainline Tabiya and say "oh well now I have easy play against the IQP". For that reason I think the tarrasch is a good choice, underestimated and generally understudied, in my opinion.
Hi, I'm planning to use Tarrasch defence and have copy of Meeting 1 d4 by Aagard. This is a very good book and covers not only the Tarrasch but has defences to other systems after 1 d4 d5 such as Catalan, Trompovsky Hodgson ( 1 d4 d5 2 Bg5), Torre attack, London system, Colle, Richter Versov. If this isn't enough it covers Reti and English AND less popular moves like 1 b4, 1 b3, 1 g4.
Another good book is Complete Defense to Queen Pawn Openings by Eric Schiller ( Cardoza Publishing). This is a well laid out book and also covers lines against Torre attack, London system, Colle, Richter Versov and Blackmar Diemer Gambit.
Try the Grandmaster Repertoire: Tarrasch Defense By Jacob Aagaard and Nikolaos Ntirlis.
You should try the Nimzo (1...Nf6 2.c4 e6 - with 3...Bb4 leads to fast development on King). Black has an active position with all the pieces are easily developed.
In the main line 1 d4 d5 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3 c5 4 cxd5 exd5 5 Nf3 Nc6 6 g3 Nf6 7 Bg2 Be7 8 0-0 0-0 9 Bg5 the book The Tarrasch Defense by Sam Collins focuses more on 9...cxd4, whereas the book The Tarrasch Defense by Jacob Aagaard and Nikolaos Ntirlis focuses more on 9...c4.
It's a matter of taste but I prefer 9...cxd4 because 9...c4 appears to be very complex.
Both books include sidelines.
My investigations with SF show white gets BIG advantage later on, difficult to say if winning.
In any case, the Tarrasch would not be the best choice on the 3rd move.
As a positional player I tend to feel a bit uncomfortable having the IQP. However, my best performance ratings against 1 d4 have been with the Tarrasch Defense (and with the 4...a6 Slav). In MCO 15 by Nick de Firmian, he writes about the Tarrasch Defense that what is very good is black takes a fair share of the center and that anyone less than a Karpov will not likely be able to exploit black's position against correct play. I've also read somewhere before that even if black gets outplayed and loses his IQP black still has about a 50% chance of holding a draw because of the pawn structure left. Another something I've read before, and this has been my experience, is that the endgames often (at least 50% of the time?) become 2 rooks with many pawns each, difficult for either side to win and someone who has taken the time to study rook endgames really well can get the upper hand more often than not or at least tend to hold a draw in an inferior endgame.
I doubt very much black can hold in case the IQP falls.
It is:
- 4 pawns vs 3 on the king side
- plus better pawn structure - those 4 pawns are by definition better connected
- plus, quite probably, more active pieces, as the pawn would fall only after strong attack
So, black should hold on to his central liability.
I don't say that white necessarily wins, but it is very favourable to him.
Black has central predominance?
In what way?
After double trade on d5 and dxc5 only black central pawn is the d5-one, and it is a liability.
For it, white gets:
- more compact pawn structure
- central opponent weakness
- excellent d4 outpost square
- blocking opportunities
I would really never consider pushing 3...c5 to be strong.
Btw., SF also thinks 3...c5 is playable for a rather long time, but then its score suddenly starts convincingly favouring white.
I'm growing inpatient with my usuall 1.d4 d5 defence, the QGD Lasker or Tartakower variation, and I want to give the Tarrasch variation a try. Are there any books out who nicely cover this variation? For black preferably, and I wouldn't mind if the book also covered the QGD exchange variation.
I've tried searching online, but I had a hard time finding out just how much attention the various books spended on the Tarrasch variation. Hopefully someone here has some good experience, or has heard something about a suiting book.