My Systems: The Tromp Wall

NM CoachJKane

Apr 12, 2022, 12:52 PM | 8

Hey Chess Friends!

Buckle up. This is a long one!

A few years ago I wrote a post on the Botvinnik English. I still play it on occasion, but it's time to discuss a system that I enjoy even more: the Tromp Wall. Don't let the name confuse you. There's nothing political about it. It's just a simple setup that leads to easy attacking games.

What is the Tromp Wall?

The Tromp Wall isn't an opening itself as much as a setup for White. Basically, you aim for a Stonewall structure, but with your dark-squared bishop outside of the pawn chain like this.

How Do you Get There?

You can reach the wall from many move orders. This one might be my most common preference.

Let's Start Attacking!

Sacrifice 1: The Greek Gift

The Bxh7 "Greek Gift" sacrifice occurs in many openings and this is certainly a common one in the Tromp Wall. In this first game, my GM opponent gave me an ideal version of the sacrifice and immediately resigned in the face of forced mate.

Here's a similar miniature. Note how I avoid the trade of light-squared bishops in order to keep an essential attacking piece.

Here's a recent example. Notice that in this move order the bishop ends up on g3 instead of g5, but the attack proceeds nonetheless.

My Favorite Sacrifice

The Greek Gift is fun, but the Ne5-g4-h6 idea is actually my favorite and most common sacrifice in the Tromp Wall. The queen heads to h5, I trade to get a black bishop on f6 and then the knight jumps e5-g4-g6 to break open the kingside. Here's the prettiest game in the opening so far. See if you can work out the attack for yourself.

Once you've exchanged on f6 and left a black bishop blocking the f7-pawn, there's not much Black can do to stop the attack. Notice that White can often play the sacrifice in the middle of an exchange. There's no need to recapture on d4 if you can checkmate.

What If I Want Another Type of Sacrifice?

Whenever you have a bishop on g5 you can think about the famous "Fishing Pole" sacrifice. Here's a recent example.

WGM Keti Tsatsalashvili has a nice video on the topic, where she actually covers one of my Trompowsky games. This was actually before I learned the wall setup, but the ideas are similar.

What If I Like To Win Slowly?

If you don't want to sacrifice, you can win positionally with the Tromp Wall as well. The biggest positional idea is to trade minor pieces to leave Black with a blocked in light-squared bishop against a strong white knight in the center. See if you can find the path to an edge here.

Do I Need To Worry About Move Orders?

The great thing about the Tromp Wall is that against most moves from Black, you can follow the same setup. One thing to watch for is that Black can sometimes play aggressively with an h6-g5 pawn sacrifice that leads to wild play. Here's a game where my opponent, a strong GM, found a precise move order to refute my opening play. When Black plays aggressively like this it's better to avoid the early f4 advance. That said, White isn't without chances and I actually scored my highest rated blitz win here. Apologies to my opponent. This wasn't his best game, but it goes to show you that even strong players can get lost in the complications.

If you're worried about games like that one, you may want to restrict your f4 advances to games where Black plays Nbd7 instead of Nc6.

Here's a video that IM Levy Rozman just made about this opponent.

What If I Want To Play The Tromp Wall Without Playing The Tromp?

You can definitely apply the ideas from this blog in other openings. The key is to attack with pawns on d4 and f4 and trade off your dark-squared bishop. My favorite non-Tromp way to attack in that style is in the Exchange Slav.

Can I Practice Some Thematic Tactics?

Sure thing!

More Content

If you would like a great video introduction to the Tromp Wall, check out IM Kostya Kavutskiy's video.

For more of my thoughts on good openings and preparation for online play, you might like my interview with the Perpetual Chess podcast.

Finally, if you'd like my thoughts on defending in chess, please check out my book here.

Please let me know how you liked this post and feel free to ask any questions in the comments.

NM Jeremy Kane

Jeremy Kane is a National Master and three-time Wisconsin state champion. He is the Director of Training Content for Chess.com. He has been teaching chess in person and online for over 15 years and has designed hundreds of lessons, available on chess.com/lessons. He is the author of Starting Out The Trompowsky on Chessable and The Next To Last Mistake, a book on defensive ideas in chess.

He is the developer of the Caro-Kane Variation of the Caro-Kann Defense.

email: [email protected]

Twitter/X: @chessmensch

My Systems: The Tromp Wall

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