Chapter 9

The Tarrasch Variation:

The Universal System

In this chapter, the last to deal with the and 3...Íe7.

Tarrasch, I am going to concentrate on White’s knight is aggressively
the increasingly popular Universal placed on f3 and Black can often find
Variation, 1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 Ìd2 Ìf6 4 himself on the receiving end of a nasty
e5 Ìfd7 5 Íd3 c5 6 c3 Ìc6 7 Ìgf3. attack. In keeping with the nature of
W________W this book I will be recommending the
[rDb1kgW4] super-aggressive move 7...Íe7 8 0-0
[0pDnDp0p] g5!?. This used to be a favourite of
mine, but then I stopped playing it af-
[WDnDpDWD]
ter a couple of bad results. However,
[DW0p)WDW] after a fair amount of new analysis, I
[WDW)WDWD] am expecting a rebirth of this variation
[DW)BDNDW] in my future games!
[P)WHW)P)] In this variation I believe that it is
[$WGQIWDR] more important for Black to be aware
W--------W of White’s main ideas and that is what
This is a dangerous system which I am going to concentrate on here. In
has been adopted by a number of top general Black’s plan is fairly straight-
grandmasters. I have even noticed that forward – he simply wants to destroy
England’s no.1 player, Michael Adams, White’s centre. The main problem that
has stopped playing the other Tarrasch Black faces is his king position. After
variations in favour of this. Inciden- playing the move 8...g5 Black will find it
tally, the system has obtained its ‘Uni- hard to ever castle kingside. Thus he
versal’ name tag because White can will often have to play the game with
play in a similar manner and try to en- his king in the centre or attempt
gineer a transposition after both 3...c5 queenside castling.

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1. White opens things up with f4! has available in the French.

White will often lose a pawn in the W________W
centre, but this is of little concern to [rhb1W4kD]
him as he normally obtains good at- [DWDngp0p]
tacking chances in return. White will
[W0WDpDWD]
often start his attack with the move f4.
[0B0p)WDW]
Z.Veroci-L.Gyorkos
[WDW)WDWD]
Budapest 2007 [DW)WDNDW]
W________W [P)WHW)P)]
[rDb1kDW4] [$WGQ$WIW]
[0pDnDpDp] W--------W
He now played 10 Ìf1!. As well as
[WDWDpDWD]
bringing the knight around towards
[DBgphWDW] Black’s king, this move also releases
[WDWHWDpD] White’s dark-squared bishop which will
[DW)WDWDW] shortly play an important role. After
[P)WHW)P)] 10...Ía6 11 a4 Íxb5 12 axb5 Îe8 13
[$WGQDRIW] Ìg3! Ìf8 14 Ìh5! the knight had
W--------W reached a very dangerous attacking
Here 12 f4! was an obvious and square.
dangerous way to start the attack W________W
when the position after 12...Ìc6 13 [rhW1rhkD]
Íxc6 bxc6 14 Ëxg4 was pretty unclear. [DWDWgp0p]
[W0WDpDWD]
2. The white knight dance: Ìf1-g3-h5!
In the Universal System this can be an
[0P0p)WDN]
extremely effective plan as White’s
[WDW)WDWD]
knight is already on d2. If White is [DW)WDNDW]
given time, he can move this knight [W)WDW)P)]
around to a more effective square. Take [$WGQ$WIW]
a look at the following game: W--------W
Indeed, Black’s position quickly
G.Kasparov-N.Short went downhill: 14...Ìbd7 15 g3 Ìg6 16
(Zurich rapid) 2001 h4 Ìdf8 17 Êg2 Ëd7 18 Íh6!! and
Black’s king did not last much longer.
Kasparov gave a model display of This is one reason why I am sug-
the attacking possibilities that White gesting that Black plays 8...g5!?. He un-

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Attacking Chess: The French

balances the position from an early How should Black continue now?
stage and White is not given time to The move 8...0-0 looks very risky as
pull off such extravagant knight ma- White’s bishop on d3 is ideally lined up
noeuvres. against the h7-pawn and White has a
number of ways that he would be able
to start an attack against Black’s king.
Game 48 Let’s first think about what is wrong
S.Rublevsky-S.Volkov with White’s set-up. The main thing
European Championship, that we notice is the position of his
Ohrid 2001 knight on d2. At the moment it is block-
ing in the dark-squared bishop and it
1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 Ìd2 Íe7 will take a while to get this knight into
We reach the Universal System via the game. Having a knight on d2 will
an interesting move order. Our usual also make it harder for White to defend
move order would be 3...Ìf6 4 e5 Ìfd7 his d4-pawn, so it makes sense for
5 Íd3 c5 6 c3 Ìc6 7 Ìgf3 Íe7. Black to aim for White’s d-pawn.
4 Ìgf3 Ìf6 5 e5 Ìfd7 6 Íd3 c5 7 c3 There are two main ways that Black
Ìc6 can do this: one is by playing 8...Ëb6
This is the starting point of the and the other is the approach chosen
opening. The first thing you should no- here. The main problem with the im-
tice is that Black does not play the mediate 8...Ëb6 is that White gains an
move ...f6 in this particular line. This is attack after 9 Îe1 cxd4 10 cxd4 Ìxd4
due to the aggressive placement of 11 Ìxd4 Ëxd4 12 Ìf3 Ëb6 13 Ëa4. I
White’s knight on f3. The problem is do not enjoy defending such positions,
that ...f6 can often run into tactics which is why I have gone for a more
based around the move Ìg5. counterattacking option in this book.
8 0-0 8...g5!?
W________W By playing this move Black plans to
[rDb1kDW4] chase White’s knight on c3 away with
[0pDngp0p] ...g5-g4. It will then be possible to cap-
ture the pawn on d4. However, this is a
[WDnDpDWD]
very double-edged approach as Black
[DW0p)WDW] cannot really consider castling kingside
[WDW)WDWD] anymore because his g-pawn has
[DW)BDNDW] marched up the board. Indeed, the
[P)WHW)P)] game can become very wild and messy
[$WGQDRIW] after this aggressive lunge.
W--------W 9 dxc5!

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 The Tarrasch Variation: The Universal System

W________W W________W
[rDb1kDW4] [rDb1kDW4]
[0pDngpDp] [0pDWgpDp]
[WDnDpDWD] [WDnDpDnD]
[DW)p)W0W] [DB)pDW0W]
[WDWDWDWD] [WDWDWDWD]
[DW)BDNDW] [DW)WDNDW]
[P)WHW)P)] [P)WHW)P)]
[$WGQDRIW] [$WGQDRIW]
W--------W W--------W
This is White’s best response to I still think that this move is under-
Black’s pawn push. He wants to open rated here. For example:
up the centre as much as possible, so a) 11 b4 0-0 (11...a5!?) 12 Ìd4 Íd7
that he can try to exploit the slightly 13 a4 and now in A.Holst-S.Williams,
exposed nature of Black’s king. Aarhus 1998, I now played 13...e5,
Other options will be looked at in which was okay, but even better would
Giplis-Savchenko towards the end of have been 13...a5! when Black is
the chapter. slightly better.
9...Ìdxe5 b) 11 c4 0-0 12 cxd5 Ëxd5 13 Ìb3
The knight grabs a central pawn. g4 14 Ëxd5 exd5 15 Íxc6 bxc6 16
This makes sense, but it can leave the Ìfd4 Íd7 was fine for Black in
black king open to attack along the e- K.Zalkind-S.Williams, Witley 1999. The
file. two bishops should come into their
Black actually has a number of op- own later on in the game.
tions here and we will look at 9...g4 and 11 Ëe2?!
9...Ìxc5 later on. Too passive. White had a second
10 Íb5?! chance to capture on e5 and he should
Black should be fine after this move. have played 11 Ìxe5!, transposing to
White should play 10 Ìxe5! which we our next game.
will look at next in Rublevsky- 11...Ëc7
Morozevich. Black is getting ready to castle
10...Íd7 queenside when his strong centre and
A move that I used to experiment advanced g-pawn will give him very
with was 10...Ìg6!?. My plan was to good chances.
give some extra protection to my king 12 Îe1
so that I could castle kingside. I also This may also be a slight waste of
wanted to combine this with ...e5. time.

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Attacking Chess: The French

12...Ìg6 Ìxc6 bxc6 20 Ëxa6 Îc8 would have

W________W left Black with some compensation for
[rDWDkDW4] the sacrificed pawn; he just needs to
[0p1bgpDp] get either his f- or h-pawn moving
quickly up the board. I expect that
[WDnDpDnD]
White is better though, as he can gen-
[DB)pDW0W] erate good play on the queenside with
[WDWDWDWD] Ìa5 and then b4.
[DW)WDNDW] 18 Îxd5
[P)WHQ)P)] W________W
[$WGW$WIW] [WDk4WDW4]
W--------W [Dp1bgpDW]
I prefer Black’s position. He has
[pDnDWDnD]
ideas such as ...g4, ...Ìf4 and ...e5 all
ready to happen.
[DW)R0WDp]
13 Ìb3 g4 14 Ìfd4 e5
[BDWDWDpD]
The opening has gone very well for [DN)WDWDW]
Volkov. He has a massive pawn centre, [P)NDQ)P)]
whilst White is lacking any way to at- [$WGWDWIW]
tack on the queenside. If only we could W--------W
get this position every time we played This is pretty much forced as other-
the French! wise Black has time to play ...Íe6 on
15 Ìc2 his next move with a good position.
White could have tried 15 Ìxc6 18...Ìd4
bxc6 16 Ía6, but now Black can castle Another option was 18...Íf5!?
the other way, 16...0-0, when he is which should give Black pretty decent
ready to launch another pawn up the compensation: for example, 19 Îxd8+
board, this time the f-pawn, with a Îxd8 20 Ìb4 Ìxb4 21 cxb4 Íd3 22
good position. Ëe3 Ìf4 with a complicated game
15...a6 16 Ía4 ahead.
A rather strange square for the 19 Íxd7+ Îxd7 20 cxd4?!
bishop, but the white pawn on c5 will This is a mistake. White should have
always make it hard for Black to ever played 20 Îxd4 which would have led
achieve ...b5. to a roughly equal position after
16...h5 17 Îd1 0-0-0! 20...exd4 21 cxd4 Íf6. If White can ever
Black relies on a little tactical point manage to play d5 then he will be do-
to defend his centre. ing well, but in the meantime Black has
Instead 17...Íe6 18 Ìb4 Îd8 19 ideas of playing ...h4, ...Îe7 and ...Ìf4

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 The Tarrasch Variation: The Universal System

with counterplay against White’s king. 28 Ëb5?

This is certainly an interesting position. This is another error. White’s queen
20...Îxd5 21 Ìb4 Îdd8 22 d5 is needed around the centre and king-
White was relying on this move to side in order to defend the light
give him good chances. The main prob- squares.
lem is... 28...h4!
22...a5! Black is simply threatening to play
W________W ...h3 and then ...Ëd5.
[WDk4WDW4] 29 Ëe2
[Dp1WgpDW] 29 Ìc5 allows a number of ex-
changes after 29...Ëd1+ 30 Îxd1 Îxd1+
[WDWDWDnD]
31 Ëf1 (not 31 Êg2?? h3 mate)
[0W)P0WDp] 31...Îxf1+ 32 Êxf1 when White would
[WHWDWDpD] have had a tough job to hold the ending.
[DNDWDWDW] 29...f5
[P)WDQ)P)] The rest is pretty easy for Black.
[$WGWDWIW] 30 Îe1 Ëd5 31 Îf1 Ëf3
W--------W W________W
...which favourably liquidates the [WiW4WDWD]
position for Black. [DpDWDWDW]
23 d6
[WDWDWDnD]
Otherwise d5 drops.
23...Íxd6 24 cxd6 Ëxd6 25 Íg5
[DWDW0pDW]
This is pretty much forced as 25 Ìc2
[W0WDWDp0]
allows 25...Ëd1+ with a winning posi- [DNDWDq)W]
tion for Black. [P)WDQ)W)]
25...axb4 26 Íxd8 Îxd8 [DWDWDRIW]
The dust has settled and Black is a W--------W
pawn up. Just as important is his con- Black decides to take no risks. A typi-
trol over the d-file. Moreover, if Black cally Russian way of finishing off the
can manage to exchange queens then game!
White will have a hopeless defensive 32 Ëxf3 gxf3
task ahead. The ending is easily winning for
27 g3 Êb8 Black. His central pawn formation will
Another option was the immediate prove to be too strong for White.
27...Ëd3 which would force White’s 33 Îe1 e4 34 Êf1 Ìe5 35 gxh4 Ìd3 36
queen to a bad square with 28 Îc1+ Îd1 Îg8 37 Ìd4 Îg2 38 Îd2 Ìf4 39
Êb8 29 Ëe1. Îc2 Îxh2 40 Êe1 Ìd3+ 0-1

265