Torre Attack

The Torre Attack is a chess opening characterized by the moves:

1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 e6 3. Bg5

or 2… d5 3. Bg5

White pursues quick and harmonious development, will bolster his d4-pawn by c2–c3, then often enforces e2–e4 to obtain attacking chances on the kingside as the Torre Bishop pins the f6-knight. If White plays an early c4, the opening will transpose to a number of more common queen pawn openings, such as the Queen’s gambit or one of the various Indian Defences.

The opening is named after the Mexican grandmaster Carlos Torre Repetto, who beat former World Champion Emanuel Lasker with it. The variation was also employed by Savielly Tartakower, Boris Spassky and Tigran Petrosian early in his career. Other noted top-level exponents include Alexey Dreev, Pentala Harikrishna, Krishnan Sasikiran and Jan Timman.

The Torre Attack is rarely met in modern top-flight play as a “Go to or Primary” system and statistics suggest that it is not particularly advantageous for White. Due to its calm nature and relative lack of theory, however, it is popular at club level, giving White chances to seize a middlegame initiative. In recent years it has also been used against Black’s kingside fianchetto pawn structure.

You can find more Openings by Torre in ‘Search Openings‘