Tartakower Attack

The Tartakower Attack, 1. d4 Nf6 2. g3, prepares to fianchetto the king's bishop before White settles on a central plan. It does not contest e4 or d5 directly the way 2. c4 does. Instead White keeps open both c4, which can steer the game back into fianchetto lines of the main 2. c4 systems, and a slower setup with Nf3 and Bg2. The move is an uncommon choice at this point, though it reaches a reasonable number of games in the Lichess database.

Black has three main replies. The most common is 2...g6, which mirrors White's fianchetto and keeps King's Indian or Grünfeld structures in reserve. 2...d5 takes a classical share of the center at once and denies White an easy c4-and-Nc3 setup. 2...e6 keeps both ...d5 and ...Bb4 setups available. Engines consider the position balanced, with ...d5, ...c5 and ...c6 among their preferred moves. Results are close, and White scores only slightly better than Black. Because so much depends on later transpositions, the line is less about forcing theory than about which structure each side prefers.