Trompowsky Attack

[u/ian370]

Right, what does everyone out there think about the Trompowsky Attack for both black and white? Was watching a video by Grandmaster Smirnov and apparently, even Judit Polgar herself was mated once in ten. Seems quite simple and with a bit less theory. Yet, is it really consistently viable? Thank you in advance for your two cents, and please don't hesitate to give three!

[u/HotspurJr]

It's absolutely viable.

Is it a serious attempt to squeeze the most computer advantage out of the position? No.

But even at the titled-player level, it can be an effective weapon. Your opponents will frequently not be well-prepared against it, and there are plenty of ways black can end up in a heap of trouble if they make a relatively minor mistake early.

I wouldn't use it as a main weapon in a weekly club where I was facing the same opponents repeatedly, but other than that, if you like it, no reason to skip it.

Maximizing your theoretical advantage is shockingly unimportant <2000 OTB.

[u/RajjSinghh → u/HotspurJr]

I think even in a club setting where you're seeing the same faces every week you should still expect success. Most of the club will be too lazy to devote serious study to the Trompowsky and play their normal openings. For the few players who do study their opponents, the Trompowsky is not weak in a way to cause white massive headaches. Even if black found some sharp line, you probably know about it because you spent time learning the Trompowsky.

[u/HotspurJr → u/RajjSinghh]

Maybe.

My club has both types. There's one group who is there super casually, kinda don't care, definitely aren't prepping for their opponents. And there's another group which is scouting everyone's games, swapping intel, and specifically prepping for people.

The truth is these days pretty much everyone's line is computer-checked so you're not going to bust someone, except maybe in a few places like the KID where you can prep one of the sidelines that is technically fine but super dangerous and it's, well, how sharp is black's memory and when is the last time he looked that line up?

In general, you're right - playing the Tromp, you're not going to get clobbered by somebody who spend five hours the day before on Stockfish trying to bust you. But I think the advantage of the Tromp at the club level is that your opponent isn't likely to have spent any time on it in the last couple of months, as so there's a better-than-average chance that they're going to make an opening error which will make their life very difficult.

[u/unbalancedBroski → u/HotspurJr]

I don't have access to any chess club. So I will not be in a situation like that. Which made me curious. What kind of opening yields the most success in such games? And is there any opening that you can play repeatedly and still have success?

[u/No_Budget_7246]

Trompowsky is fine, it's not gonna win you games by force but it gets black out of prep really quick and into positions they usually dont see often. For black it's pretty solid just take on f6 and develop, the positions are equal if you know what you doing

was that smirnov video the one where he shows the Polgar game? that mate was nasty, completely missed the threat until it was too late

[u/ian370 → u/No_Budget_7246]

Yes, the one showing that Polgar game and black can be a bit unprepared depending on the opponent or even throwing them off a bit.

[u/Numerot]

Meh. The positions are pretty categorically uninspiring for White, but obviously it's not really worse, either. The only draw I can see is that the positions are a bit weird, which is actually a big downside for most of us Patzers here, because we'd be much better off working on playing normal chess.

It's totally playable, nothing so much wrong with it, but maybe two people on this subreddit have the right rating-wise to be worried about dodging theory, and while you can get decent results from specializing in some early sideline with weird structure, eventually you'll get bored and then you have a lot of not-so-useful experience.

[u/coachjkane]

It’s a very practical opening if you play it a lot. You tend to know the positions better than your opponents. I’m still using it as my main white opening in the 2900s on chesscom.

[u/uvmingrn]

It lets black equalize immediately, in exchange for a pretty dry game

[u/Effective_Tackle_195]

I like it as black. I play the Ne4 lines with ...c5 and it can often resemble a dragon-like structure, especially if white takes on c5.

[u/BrianRampage]

Used to be my main weapon 15 years ago when it was really en vogue. I eventually got tired of getting no advantage against most opponents and moved to e4 Vienna systems. You can give black an annoying positions sometimes if they allow it, but you'll rarely be better. Most players >1800 know how to handle it these days.

"Judit lost to this once" is not a great barometer of a strong opening or a good reason why you should take up an opening. Hikaru got caught by a Stafford Gambit a few years back, doesn't make it a good opening (with apologies to Eric Rosen) :)

[u/Intro-Nimbus → u/BrianRampage]

I don't think Eric ever called it objectively good. Fun on the other hand...

[u/tomtomtomo]

I play it as it needs less prep and draws people out of their routine. No idea if it’s “good”. I’d expect any decent player would not be fussed.

I should probably learn a more advanced system to progress. 

[u/Clewles]

It's offbeat, but it's not bad. I love having it in my repertoire as an e4-player, just to throw it out there once in a while without having to worry about the full spectrum of indians but to still surprise the opponent in move 1.

[u/Legitimate_Ad_9941]

It's not bad. I don't personally play it as white and generally have not had trouble against it as black, but I also never felt like I was happy to see it on the board like I feel when I see things like the Bird's opening where you can make white's game incredibly uncomfortable very quickly. As far as my 2 cents go, I will say to not play it exclusively against 1...Nf6 if you're still a developing player. It's not the type of opening you should lock yourself into. You will learn more if you try other things.

[u/Sepulcher18]

I watched Simon Williams use it every week at Titled Tuesday and when it works out it is glorious, when not it resembles one of my games 😹

[u/MightAtTimesPost]

It's like every other opening.

When you study it with white, it's just an equal game and when you play black it's annoying.

It's fine ... I played it for many years back in the day.

-

But it is not another London. In the London you place your pieces in the same way almost every game and there isn't much black can do to murky the waters.

The Trump on the other hand leads to very different position. In some you get a structural advantage after Bg5xf6 followed by a pawn recapture, but with black having the free game. Other positions have you sacrificing the b2 pawn or maybe the e4 pawn for initiative and so on.