Advance Variation, Tal Variation

The Tal Variation, named after and popularized by Mikhail Tal, answers the main line 3...Bf5 with 4. h4. Like the Bayonet Attack and the Van der Wiel Attack, it targets the bishop on f5 with kingside pawns, though it is seen less often than those lines. The rook's pawn gains space and prepares h4-h5 to harass the bishop. The practical point is that the routine 4...e6, normal against most other fourth moves, is no longer safe here, since 5. g4 leaves the bishop with no escape. The move is still met in a minority of games, and White scores very heavily after it.

Black therefore usually deals with the h-pawn before playing ...e6. The most popular reply, 4...h5, chosen in roughly half of games, stops the pawn at once, though it concedes the g5 square to White's pieces. The second choice, 4...h6, instead gives the bishop a retreat on h7, so that a later g4 no longer traps it. After either move, results stay close to the variation's average, with White winning somewhat more often, and the engine regards the position as roughly balanced.