A45 Trompowsky Attack (1.d4 Nf6 2.Bg5 Ne4 3.Bf4 c5 4.d5 d6)

For this post I am doing something a bit different than usual. The old way has started to seem to me a bit redundant in a way and maybe it has been like that for quite awhile now. I am not sure if this is a better way of doing these, but I am trying to improve on what I have done in the past. Instead of highlighting couple of moments and typing something about them may not be that beneficial since, for the most part, the same things can be seen in the analysis that can be seen in the notation of the game. For this reason I have decided to offer some insight on something that can't be seen on the notation.

The move 1.d4 is the second most played move in my reference database, which if my memory serves me right, is updated up to the end of last year, but not with games that have been played this year. It is something I am going to chance at some point. The move 1.d4 had been played 2119989 games, while the most popular move 1.e4 appeared in 3398062 games. The third most played move was 1.Nf3 and it had been played in 520835 games. My reply to 1.d4 was Nf6, which has been my main move against it in the recent years, but when I first started playing chess, 1...d5 was the move I chose. 1...Nf6 is also the most popular move in my reference database, it was played in 1148366 games and the move I used to play 1...d5 was the second most common move against 1.d4 and it appears in 636012 games. My opponent's second move 2.Bg5 is the third most popular move, it appears in 20422 games. The amount of reference games drops a lot each time one of the players makes a move.

Had my opponent gone with the most popular move, then he would have played 2.c4, which had been played in 353465 games. The second most common move was 2.Nf3, appearing in 139285 games. All three moves have a score over 50%, though only slightly, which means that White has a slightly better chance to win than to draw the game in case I have understood the scoring thing correctly. While my opponent did not chose the most popular moves in his first two moves, I certainly did that according to statistics. To 2.Bg5 I replied by moving my knight to e4, which appeared in 15442 games and it has been played by Garry Kasparov, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Sergey Karjakin and Boris Gelfand, for instance. The next move, 3.Bf4, was actually the most popular choice of all the possibilities and it has been played by some notable players such as Fabiano Caruana, Alexander Grischuk, Garry Kasparov and Hikaru Nakamura.

The game continued to follow moves that very strong players had played before as I played the move 3...c5, a move that I probably first saw IM Greg Shahade play in blitz several years ago. The move had been played in 5530 games and Grand Masters like Garry Kasparov and Teimour Radjabov have played it. Kojjootti then played 4.d5, which is the second most commonly seen move in the position, played in 830 games. The most popular move in that position is to play 4.f3 (4334 games) and drive the knight away. The move my opponent chose had been played before by players such as Michael Adams, Christian Bauer, Garry Kasparov and Teimour Radjabov. I continued with the move 4...d6 (172 games), which was the second most played move. The move that was chosen most of the time was 4...Qb6 (860 games). 4...d6 had been played, for example, by Vyacheslav Ikonnikov (rating at the time 2548), Artur Kogan (2590) and Gilberto Milos (2603). The 5th move, Qd3, is a novelty in the position, previously the moves 5.f3 (137 games), 5.Nd2 (29 games), 5.c3 (4 games) and 5.g3 (2 games) had been tried. The deciding mistake of my game was played in the diagram position below. I played 11...Ne5 and my position went downhill in the game continuation 12.Nxe5 dxe5. The exchange of knights resulted in a position where I had blocked the long diagonal for my bishop on g7. Combined with the bad knight at a6 and with less space, I was in bad shape, from which I could not recover from.

[Event "Live Chess"] [Site "Chess.com"] [Date "2016.07.18"] [Round "?"] [White "Kojjootti"] [Black "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "A45"] [WhiteElo "1722"] [BlackElo "1770"] [Annotator "Stockfish 9 64 POPCNT (30s)"] [PlyCount "69"] [EventDate "2016.??.??"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. Bg5 Ne4 3. Bf4 c5 4. d5 d6 {A45 Trompowsky Attack} 5. Qd3 $146 { White threatens to win material: Qd3xe4} (5. Nd2 Nf6 (5... Nxd2 6. Qxd2 Nd7 7. e4 g6 8. Bh6 Bxh6 9. Qxh6 Qa5+ 10. c3 Nf6 11. f3 Bd7 12. Bd3 O-O-O 13. Qe3 e6 14. dxe6 Bxe6 15. Ne2 d5 16. O-O dxe4 17. Bxe4 Nxe4 18. fxe4 Rhe8 19. b4 Qc7 20. Qxc5 {Kvist,A-Ostberg,P (2300) Sundsvall 1979 0-1 (42)}) 6. e4 g6 7. Ne2 b5 (7... Bg7 8. Nc3 O-O 9. Be2 Na6 10. O-O Nc7 11. a4 e5 12. Bg5 h6 13. Bh4 Qe8 14. Nc4 Qd7 15. Bg3 Nfe8 16. f4 exf4 17. Bxf4 Bd4+ 18. Kh1 g5 19. Bg3 f6 20. Qd3 Be5 21. Bh5 Qe7 22. Rf2 {Puckett,M-Sarkar,J (2125) Washington DC 1996 1-0 (54)}) 8. Ng3 b4 9. a3 Bg7 10. Bb5+ Nfd7 11. Nc4 a6 12. Ba4 O-O 13. Qc1 Nb6 14. Nxb6 Qxb6 15. axb4 Nd7 16. O-O cxb4 17. Bg5 e6 18. Bc6 Ra7 19. Be7 Ne5 { Miles,A (2435)-Timman,J (2510) Teeside 1975 0-1 (38)}) (5. f3 Qa5+ 6. Nd2 Nf6 7. e4 g6 8. Ne2 Bg7 9. Nc3 {1/2-1/2 (9) Schlaugat,M (2250)-Huenerkopf,H Germany 1982}) (5. f3 Nf6 $11) 5... Nf6 (5... Qb6 $5 6. Bc1 f5 $11) 6. c4 (6. e4 g6 $11) 6... g6 (6... e5 7. Bd2 $14) 7. e4 (7. Nc3 a6 $11) 7... Bg7 (7... Qb6 8. Bc1 $14) 8. Nc3 O-O 9. h3 {Covers g4} (9. Be2 e6 $11) 9... Na6 (9... e6 10. Nf3 $11) 10. a3 {Black has a cramped position} (10. Nf3 e6 11. dxe6 Bxe6 $14) 10... Nd7 (10... Nc7 11. Nf3 $11) 11. Nf3 (11. Qd2 $16) 11... Ne5 $2 ( 11... f5 $142 $5 $11 {should be investigated more closely}) 12. Nxe5 $16 dxe5 13. Be3 b6 (13... e6 14. f3 $16) 14. g4 (14. h4 f5 $16) 14... Bd7 (14... Nc7 15. Be2 $16) 15. Be2 (15. Qd2 Nc7 $16) 15... Qc7 $2 (15... Nc7 16. h4 $18) 16. h4 (16. Qd2 Qd6 $18) 16... Rad8 (16... h6 17. O-O-O Qd6 18. Qd2 $18) 17. h5 ( 17. Qd2 $142 Qc8 18. f3 $18) 17... e6 $2 (17... f6 $142 $18) 18. hxg6 (18. O-O-O {keeps an even firmer grip} Bc8 $18) 18... fxg6 19. Bg5 Rde8 (19... Bf6 20. Qh3 Bc8 21. Bxf6 Rxf6 $18) 20. Qh3 exd5 (20... Kf7 {does not solve anything } 21. Nb5 Bxb5 22. dxe6+ Rxe6 23. cxb5 $18) 21. Qxh7+ Kf7 22. Nxd5 (22. Bh6 $142 {keeps an even firmer grip} Rg8 23. Rh3 dxe4 24. Nxe4 $18) 22... Qc6 ( 22... Rh8 {is not much help} 23. Bf6 Rxh7 24. Rxh7 Rg8 25. Nxc7 Nxc7 26. Bxe5 Ne6 $18) 23. Qh3 (23. Bh6 $142 {and White has triumphed} Rg8 24. Rh3 $18) 23... Qe6 (23... Nc7 24. O-O-O Ne6 25. Qf3+ Kg8 $18) 24. O-O-O Bc6 25. Qf3+ (25. Qg3 $142 $5 {might be the shorter path} Qd7 26. Rh7 Kg8 $18) 25... Kg8 26. Qe3 (26. Qh3 $142 {makes it even easier for White} Kf7 $18) 26... Bxd5 (26... Rf4 { is no salvation} 27. Qh3 Kf8 28. Qh7 $18) 27. cxd5 Qc8 (27... Qd6 {there is nothing better in the position} 28. Bxa6 b5 $18) 28. Bh6 Rf7 29. Bxg7 Rxg7 30. Qh6 Kf7 31. f4 exf4 32. Bc4 (32. Qxf4+ Ke7 33. Bxa6 Kd8 34. Qf6+ Rge7 35. d6 Qxa6 36. dxe7+ Kc7 37. Qd6+ Kb7 38. Qd7+ Kb8 39. Qxe8+ Qc8 40. Qxc8+ Kxc8 41. e8=Q+ Kb7 42. Rh7+ Ka6 43. Qa4#) 32... Kg8 33. d6+ Re6 (33... Qe6 {cannot undo what has already been done} 34. Bxe6+ Rxe6 35. d7 Rxe4 36. d8=Q+ Kf7 37. Rd7+ Ke6 38. Rd6+ Kf7 39. Rf6#) 34. Qh8+ (34. Rdf1 g5 35. Bxe6+ Qxe6 36. Qxe6+ Rf7 37. Qg6+ Rg7 38. Qe8#) 34... Kf7 35. Qxc8 (35. Qxc8 Nc7 36. dxc7 Rh7 37. Qxe6+ Kf8 38. c8=Q+ Kg7 39. Rd7#) 1-0

The game below was the only one that I was able to find in my reference database that had players where both were rated over 2500.

[Event "UKR-chT"] [Site "Alushta"] [Date "2009.05.27"] [Round "7"] [White "Andreikin, Dmitry"] [Black "Ajrapetjan, Yuriy"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "A45"] [WhiteElo "2625"] [BlackElo "2531"] [PlyCount "81"] [EventDate "2009.05.21"] [EventType "team-tourn"] [EventRounds "9"] [EventCountry "UKR"] [SourceTitle "CBM 130 Extra"] [Source "ChessBase"] [SourceDate "2009.07.02"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. Bg5 Ne4 3. Bf4 c5 4. d5 d6 5. f3 Nf6 6. e4 g6 7. Nc3 Bg7 8. Qd2 O-O 9. Bh6 e5 10. dxe6 Bxe6 11. Bxg7 Kxg7 12. Nge2 Nc6 13. Nf4 Nd4 14. O-O-O Qa5 15. a3 Rad8 16. h4 h6 17. Nce2 Qxd2+ 18. Rxd2 Nxe2+ 19. Bxe2 g5 20. hxg5 hxg5 21. Nxe6+ fxe6 22. Rhd1 d5 23. Bc4 g4 24. exd5 b5 25. Bxb5 exd5 26. Bc4 d4 27. c3 gxf3 28. gxf3 Nh5 29. cxd4 Rf4 30. Rh1 Rdxd4 31. Rxd4 Rxd4 32. Rxh5 Rxc4+ 33. Kd2 Kg6 34. Rd5 Rh4 35. Rxc5 Rh2+ 36. Kc1 Kf6 37. Rc7 Ke6 38. Rxa7 Rf2 39. Rc7 Rxf3 40. Rc3 Rf2 41. Rd3 1-0