In love with Tarrasch
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yhayon
Mar 16, 2023
0
#1
First time, I saw Tarrasch Defense on Chessable by GM Jorden van Foreest. After seeing some a couple of moves, I actually felt in love with this defense. Then I practiced over the board and found some interesting lines to play. Then I executed my first game on Chess.com and won. I made mistakes but with Tarrasch at least I won my game 💋
I think this is a cool opening. A very dynamic defence against the Queen's Gambit.
Congratulations on your victory!
If you like the IQP positions, also check out the Panov Attack against the Caro Kann. It's essentially a colours reversed Tarrasch.
Mar 17, 2023
0
#4
You are not alone. I know people who has been in love with Tarrasch for their whole life.
I like the Tarrasch Defense. These days I think it's considered not quite top tier, but not second tier either, rather inbetween.
However, in his book 'Fight 1 d4 with the Tarrasch' GM Vassilios Kotronias makes the bold claim that 3...c5 is as good as 3...Nf6 and 3...c6, and says that from a practical point of view it might be better.
Kasparov used it to take him to the WC but after losing twice to Karpov with the Tarrasch Defense he gave up playing it. People who have looked into it claim the defense was not at fault, that Kasparov did not play as well as Karpov in those two games. Playing against the IQP is probably Karpov's bread and butter but we aren't going to be facing a Karpov.
I read somewhere before that even if black loses his IQP he may have a fair chance of holding a draw because of the pawns' situations on both sides of the board and black's active pieces.