A Dynamic Response to the Trompowsky

Let's face it—d4-systems are annoying. From the London to the Veresov, these openings guarantee White a solid position with reasonable play and there isn't always a sound and dynamic option against them. The Trompowsky, on the other hand, is especially provocative and there are many interesting ways to face it. In this brief blog post, I'll introduce my personal repertoire against the Tromp and make a case for it being one of the best counters available.

Stomp the Tromp with 2...c5

The lines I propose against the Tromp begin with the moves 1.d4 Nf6 2.Bg5 c5.

At first glance, this may seem like a standard Benoni-esque response which White players may be happy to see. However, it is so much more than that. This repertoire comprises two major branching paths: 3.d5 and 3.Bxf6, both of which leading to completely different positions with their own flavour of dynamism. In this short blog, we'll explore a few critical positions that may arise, and at the end will be a link to the full, in-depth study I created.

Part A: 3.d5

We will commence with the most popular continuation according to the Lichess database, and the one I personally enjoy facing the most. Here, we have the option of going 3...Qb6, entering the Poisoned Pawn variation, or my study recommendation, 3...Ne4.

Although White has the three moves pictured above, in my experience, I've only ever faced 4.Bf4 and 4.h4. I'll start with the latter since it's relatively straightforward. Here, I find h4 to be a wasted move if we simply challenge the bishop with 4...h6 and White retreats to f4 anyway. We continue with 5...Qb6, hitting the b2-pawn, and we'll likely meet the typical response 6.Nd2 (I'll leave it as an exercise to the reader to figure out why 6.Qc1 to defend the pawn isn't possible! Answer in the full study at the end of this blog). From here, we can simply take on b2, using the double attack 7...Qb4+ to regain the piece.

White may have a smidge of compensation here for the pawn, but it's very engine-y, and as long as we don't get our queen trapped I believe Black is simply a pawn to the good.

Now is the time for the more complex variations in 4.Bf4. We need a clear and concrete plan here, as we have a loose knight on e4 for unclear reasons and White has the positional threat of using the knight to gain a tempo and build a center with f2-f3 and e2-e4. Fortunately, we have a very nice and rare idea available: we go 4...e6, and on 5.f3 we have the clever move 5...Bd6!? which, following the trade of bishops, the knight on d6 will assist in supporting a quick b7-b5 to gain space on the queenside. I've found this to be a highly fascinating tabiya position with plenty of dynamic opportunities for Black, and it came as no surprise that Black has a tremendous score in the database for my rating range (2200-2500+).

I'm not a fan of the standard Benoni at all, but this position is something else.

Playing b7-b5 in the Benoni is a paradigm that's akin to playing d7-d5 in the Sicilian.

Part B: 3.Bxf6

These variations can get equally as interesting as the 3.d5 lines, if not more. I recommend the mainline here following the moves 3.Bxf6 gxf6 4.d5 Qb6 5.Qc1 f5, leading us to the tabiya of this chapter.

From here, White must decide which pawns to push in anticipation of Bf8-g7, hitting b2. There are three general setups as indicated by the pawns above, but to keep the blog brief we'll only examine 6.g3 and the main move, 6.c4.

6.g3 is straightforward for Black. We go 6...Bg7 to force 7.c3, then we bring our knight to d7 while White proceeds to complete his kingside development. Now comes a little twist: a very natural move at this point is 9.Nh3, and this is indeed the top move in both the Lichess and Masters databases. The idea is very simple from a structural standpoint: White seeks to secure his knight on the f4-outpost, and play h2-h4 to "fix" the structure. If allowed, Black could easily end up worse. However, we can throw a wrench in the works by means of 9...h5!, launching our h-pawn before White is in time to create the ideal pawn formation. Black is in good shape here.

Moving on, White can also put his pawn on c4, intending to block the long diagonal via Nb1-c3 with the support of his queen. This line can quickly become strategically dangerous for Black if he continues with standard development—the knight on c3 is ideally placed, White has the better long-term structure, and it's unclear what the Black queen is doing on b6. Therefore, I propose the interesting variation with 6.c4 Bh6!? 7.e3 f4! to change the character of the game altogether.

Aggressive and direct. Black wants to absolve himself of his primary weakness by saddling White with one of his own. Consequently, the opponent has little choice but to take us up on the challenge and enter a gambit line which, with perfect play, is theoretically balanced. We follow the forced line 8.exf4 Bxf4 9.Qxf4 Qxb2 10.Ne2 Qxa1 11.Nc3 d6. Black is up an exchange for now, but his queen placement isn't ideal and White obtains rapid development in return.

I am not normally someone who advocates entering dangerous gambit lines, at least not without sufficient preparation. This one seems especially hazardous—in the next few moves, Black must know a precise sequence of moves not to be much worse. After the dust has settled, though, we should end up in a position where White's the one who has to find only moves not to lose the game on the spot, and this is the part which intrigues me. It begins as a semi-bluff on Black's part, daring White to sacrifice his rook on a1, and ends with a vicious counterattack on White's king using the open g-file.

An effective way to rank the practicality of certain gambits is to examine them thoroughly and see how much effort and knowledge both the gambiteer and the defender need to acquire to reach a familiar position where it's difficult to go astray. In other words, a position where one side can comfortably play their moves and ensure that there will be multiple moves in the position that keep them in the game. This is exactly the case here—at a certain point in the critical line, our queen will escape from the trenches and we'll reach a totally playable position, and there are numerous pitfalls along the way where White simply loses instantly if he doesn't know the correct move. The same can be said from the Black perspective, but I feel as though the opposite is more true. If anything, it's White who has to be careful not to get checkmated!

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Make sure to check out the full study for more explanations, sidelines, and introspective analysis:

If you enjoyed the blog and/or the opening content, don't forget to check out my other works here: https://lichess.org/study/topic/pd159_openings/his
And as always, if you have any questions about this blog feel free to comment in the designated blog forum below.
Until next time!
- pd159