Levitsky Attack

The Levitsky Attack, 1. d4 d5 2. Bg5, is also known as the Queen's Bishop Attack. Instead of the Queen's Gambit with 2. c4 or a quiet setup with 2. Nf3, White develops the dark-squared bishop at once. On the g5-d8 diagonal it pins the e7-pawn to the queen, so the natural ...e6 is unavailable until Black deals with the bishop. The aim is to slow Black's kingside development and force an early decision about how to meet the pin.

Black has several ways to do that. The most common reply, 2...Nf6, blocks the diagonal with a developing move; with Nf3 added, the same position is the Torre Attack. 2...h6 puts the question to the bishop immediately, and 2...f6, one of the engine's preferred moves, drives it off with a pawn at some cost to the kingside's appearance. Because the bishop is usually challenged soon after arriving, it rarely holds g5 for long, and the retreat that follows can give Black back the time White spent on the early sortie.

Other replies ignore the pin and counterattack. 2...Nc6, the engine's top choice and nearly as popular as 2...h6, develops a piece and supports central play, while 2...c5 strikes at d4 straight away, exploiting the fact that the bishop has left the queenside. The Welling Variation, 2...Bg4, mirrors White's idea by pinning nothing yet developing the light-squared bishop actively; it is rare and results in it are close to even. A related named line, the Euwe Variation, Modern Line, arises from a different move order, 1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 c6 3. Bg5 h6 4. Bh4 Qb6, where the queen sortie targets b2, the pawn the bishop's early development leaves less protected.

The opening sits around rank 186 among roughly 3,200 named openings by games reaching its position, with more than 100,000 Lichess games. White scores somewhat better than Black there, and draws are unusually rare, under four percent. Engines regard the position after 2. Bg5 as roughly balanced. The line demands less memorization than the Queen's Gambit, and the play tends to revolve around the early pin and the tempo questions surrounding the bishop rather than deep forcing theory.